I Know, I know. But It Really Is A Process

It may be a bit corny to say so, but really I hope you have the time to reflect on the art you made this year, as well as your goals for the next. Going back through your work and your archive of images can sometimes lead to pleasant surprises. (We're each on our own with the unpleasant re-discoveries). I'm trying hard to remember how I made this film image, but ... nada. It looks like a multiple exposure of some kind, but who knows, I didn't bother to write anything down about my process. And, for one reason or another, I passed over giving it much attention at the time it was made. Today it seems like a good way to end a somewhat unusual year.

Tasting notes: Rolleiflex SL66...

Hell, Brake Loose

Take a camera you are unfamiliar with or haven't used in a while and go around shooting quickly. Maybe have more than one camera with you. Make mistakes, get confused. Let the technology mess up. Keep shooting. Miss focus. Tom waits, but you don't have to. Chaos. Have fun. Happy New Year. 

Tasting notes: Fujifilm X30. Black and white film simulation.

Raindrops on Roses

My Intro to Photography course at University was a real dog, if I am honest, like many such courses across disciplines. Nobody wants to teach them. As it turns out, though, all the important lessons were learned in and around the school's community darkroom. I remember one of the resident darkroom soldiers opining that every photographer should shoot with as many different cameras as possible, from a subminiature Minox to a massive 8x10. It sure sounded cool, and I was totally game to try, but I could barely afford the care and feeding of my beat up old Canon AE-1 and the 50mm f/1.4, my only lens. Fast forward to the early days of the digital era, and it was easy to justify trying out a wide range of tools as the tech was evolving so quickly. On my journey, I spent some quality time with the Fujifilm cameras and I particularly enjoyed walking around with the 18-55mm kit lens.

Tasting notes: Fujifilm X-T2, 18-55mm lens.

Preening My Feathers

Over the decades, I have accumulated literally hundreds of pounds of books, and that weight excludes the multiple dozens of cookbooks I have scattered throughout the house (which tend to weigh more and would skew the results!). When I was younger, I tended to keep every single volume I ever bought, both as a personal record of what I had read, or planned to read, and later, as the collection grew ever weightier, as a sort of physical addendum to my CV. A primitive form of virtue signaling I suppose. In the 21st Century, we tend to preen our feathers online, and happily, my collection of aging books has gone back to just being my personal library. Funnily enough, they all fit comfortably in a formerly unused closet in the middle of the house.

Tasting notes: Fujifilm GA645Zi, Fujifilm Acros 100.

A Fish Tale

Last night I prepared some King Salmon for dinner. As I cut open the vacuum sealed bag containing the pair of filets, I noticed that they were as fresh as any salmon I have ever cooked before. So I chose to season them simply, using just salt and pepper, and I cooked them as gently as possible, preferring to enjoy the fish more or less on its own terms. So it goes sometimes with photographs, I find. Some are best served raw while others demand a serious braise. This image is a direct recording of the lens image onto a digital sensor. No post-production: an oyster on the half shell. The trees in silhouette fell naturally to black and the clouds were rendered just as white as they appeared in the late afternoon light. The splashes of blue were just how the sky looked that day, too. 

Tasting notes: Fujifilm X30, Classic Chrome film simulation.

Je Ne Sais Quoi

 

I guess this fence represents a kind of architectural hat trick. With wood being as crazy expensive as it is right now, it is apparent that these folks spent a ton of money to build a rather oversized fence that many would describe as less than attractive. The mud stains in particular are very eye catching and add a certain je ne sais quoi. Maybe we should move to Whoville. :)

Tasting notes: Fujifilm X30, Classic Chrome film simulation.

Happy Christmas

Have yourself a merry little Christmas. 

Tasting notes: Rolleiflex SL66, 80mm f/2.8 lens, HP5+, DDX 1+4.

Vines like Pythons

With the leaves gone for the winter, the size of the vines entwined among the trees is readily apparent and pretty remarkable. They reminded me of snakes, and in my state of reverie, I half expected to be attacked. In black and white, the tones of the vines are quite different from those of the trees, too, which made this scene interesting to photograph. Not sure, but I think these actually might be poison ivy. 

I wish you good light this Christmas Eve. 

A Very Noir Christmas

Who doesn't love a black rose? These days it is pretty easy, at least for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm as jolly as ever, but there you go... At any rate, a couple of years ago, I wanted me some black roses, so I loaded orthochromatic film into my beloved SL66 and shot a whole roll of images of roses. And, they turned out great! This year, however, I went in a far simpler direction. It is the holidays, and so I've pulled a couple of old cameras out of the drawer. This year, I have my Fujifilm X30 set up to shoot black-and-white jpg files. It is going to be a noir Christmas, baby.

Appreciating my local patch

The temperature had dropped from about 70 degrees early in the afternoon when the rain started, to about 45 degrees as the sky cleared and the sun began its slow decent to the horizon. I was really looking forward to walking on something other than the hard pavement, but all I could think of was how cold I was. Too few layers. Fortunately, with my subject in the far distance, I had plenty of time to mentally frame up this shot, barely braking stride to click the shutter. It was a casual shot, you could call it a practice shot, but I'm pleased with how it came out anyway. That's a good day.

Kitschy

This old Christmas tree was one of my mother's favorite decorations. At least that is what I tell myself, since it is one of the last surviving items from those long gone days. It is precious to me in all of its kitschy goodness. Somehow, too, it reminds me of the old Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer animated show from the middle of the last century. This year, the funky little tree is sitting in front of a mirror in the living room. 

The bokeh comes from the Zeiss 80mm f/2.8 lens mounted on the period correct Rolleiflex SL66. It was shot on HP5+ and developed in DDX. I'm slowly getting in the holiday spirit.

Spiraling 🌀 In

We had not been to this location since the BP era, if you know what I mean. Here we are two years later and the tree canopies have really filled in. Not too much light filters through any more, which is just what the doctor ordered. There are certain places that you are drawn to photograph over and over again, and this is one of my spots. I’m finally learning how I want my photographs of this group of trees to look.

Dream Catcher

The camera looks, but I look around. And so now, at the computer screen, as I look around once more, I see things recorded by the lens that didn't come to the fore at the time of making the exposure. There is always more out there in nature than we can fully apprehend, I think. In that way, the camera acts like a kind of dream catcher.

Fit To Be Tied

Funny how a simple photograph can spur a wild train of thought:

I finally more or less decided that these giant stacks are railroad ties. They remind me of the anonymous apartment buildings I used to see in East Berlin back in the day. I thought of those days again recently when we watched the German indie film 'Goodbye Lenin'. Not a film about the Beatles. According to the internet, one of the first uses of the expression, 'fit to be tied' was James Joyce in Ulysses. The expression has fallen out of favor, even though there appear to be more people than ever who are fit to be tied. What I wonder is, who's going to tie up all the nutters?

Ole Saint Beatnik

I still have a handful of the Christmas ornaments my parents bought in the 1960s and 1970s. I definitely cherish these items, but at this point they sure do make me reflect on the passage of time. Anyway, Ole Saint Beatnik here is one of my favorites. Remember beatniks? Each year when we pull him out of the box, I can't resist making his portrait. I stopped down quite a bit for this, but with his cartoonish looks, I still couldn't get the whole face in acceptable focus. Maybe I'll get some extra depth of field for Christmas.

Good light this weekend.

Far Out, Yet So Close

From my school days in Texas a few decades ago, I have memories of driving past the old Austin Motel on South Congress Avenue. That's the place with the phallic neon sign that still reads, 'So Close, Yet So Far Out'. Whatever that means. Truth be told, I really rather enjoyed the cosmic hippie side of old Austin, with its groovy vibe that seemed so out of place in the middle of Texas. At any rate, all this came to mind on a recent walk through Algonkian Memorial Park near Washington, DC the other day. There we were, out in the nearly pristine landscape, or as close to it as one can get these days, yet we were also just a stone's throw away from a golf course owned by a former president of the United States.

Schleppin' It

Sometimes I have to actively resist the temptation to grab one of my small (and usually quirky) cameras when getting ready to go on a hike. It would seem that I am typically far too inclined to choose the lighter load. On this day, I told myself the extra two pounds were not going to slow me down in the slightest, and brought Big Daddy along. Full frame camera, snazzy lens. So glad to have chosen photography over convenience! The light was already pretty low in the sky and the shadows from the tree branches were spidered out across the water, making for interesting photographic possibilities. Big Daddy delivered the goods.

Real Art

My wife posted an image of one of Eva Hesse's works on her Instagram Stories, and a follower commented, 'Ah, so you're out looking at real art!' Ha! 

It is a terrific idea to get out and look at real art from time to time. We made the slog to Richmond to see the concurrent Ansel Adams and Man Ray shows at the VMFA. Both were well worth the small price of admission. Regardless of your opinion of Ansel Adams, there is plenty to learn from a close examination of his prints in real life. It was a remarkable experience. Likewise, the portraits made by Man Ray during his time in Paris were fascinating. He literally met everyone. I particularly appreciated seeing examples of full frame and cropped images, such as the one here. Alas, too bad solarized portraits have gone out of fashion!

Fantastic Plastic

A number of the ball fields in the area have been covered with a thin layer of plastic for the winter months, making this soccer pitch look a bit like a hockey rink. Seems like an expensive thing to do, draping everything with plastic. But, I know nothing of such things... I just felt sure that I wanted to capture a photograph of the scene in front of me. I wasn't overly confident that the old Pentax K-01 I had with me would operate when the temperature outside was only 30 degrees, much less be up to capturing a decently exposed photograph of this strongly backlit scene. In the end, it actually did okay. 

Quote of the Day, VII. Edward Weston

 

'Consulting the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk'.

-Edward Weston

--------

Got a bit carried away with the daily quotes, but it sure was fun to put together.

Quote of the Day, VI. Brett Weston

Anything more than 500 yds from the car just isn’t photogenic. 

– Brett Weston

View out my window...

Quote of the Day, V. Man Ray

 

“The streets are full of admirable craftsmen, but so few practical dreamers.”

-Man Ray

Image captured using the Pentax K-01 and a 40mm lens. A camera for practical dreamers if ever there was one.

Best wishes for dreamy or practical light this weekend!

Quote of the Day, IV. Anxiety

 

“Perhaps all anxiety might derive from a fixation on moments — an inability to accept life as ongoing.”

-Sarah Manguso

This moment was only 1/250 s.

Quote of the Day, III. Tone.

“Someone once asked me to describe my tone, and I said it was like farting in a trash can. What I meant is it’s raw, but you’ve got to have the tone in there.”

-Dusty Hill, bassist for ZZ Top, who died in July, 2021.

Nikkormat FS, 50mm f/3.5 macro, Fomapan 100.

Quote of the Day, II. Lewis Baltz

 

“I used photography to distance myself from a world that I loathed and was powerless to improve.”

-Lewis Baltz

Quote of the Day, I. Analog

From ‘The Revenge of Analog’ by Kevin Kelly: “People who are versatile in the analog world make better digital stuff”. 

Shooting from the car

My wife kindly waited for me to make this photograph before pulling away from the intersection as the light turned green, probably irritating the person behind us. I'm glad I was able to get this image, but I am also belatedly realizing that I really do need to do a better job of keeping the windshield clean. Just for cases like this. It would be easy to make things look perfect in Photoshop, but as the saying goes, imperfection is perfection. Something like that. Plus, it is nice to leave a few clues for viewers to ponder should they be so inclined.

The smallest camera

I had three pieces in a museum show that opened last night. The museum is a two and a half hour drive from our place, and it is always so tempting to wave your hands, blow the whole thing off at the last minute, and just stream a movie from the comfort of the sofa. Thankfully, sharing driving duties makes such a trip much more palatable. I'm glad we went, too, as one of my pieces won an award. It would have been cheesy not to be there. As we were walking to grab sushi for dinner, we noticed the setting sun illuminating the tops of some buildings. I made the decision to place the plane of focus on the fence rather than on the brick facades. Then I had second thoughts and shot again focused on the buildings this time. In the end, my first instinct turned out to be the right one, as it so often does.

There is one funny thing that often happens at photography openings which I'd kind of forgotten about due to the pandemic. Folks often show up to these events with their biggest and fanciest cameras draped around their necks. Just struttin' their stuff, I guess. I had my tiny Canon M6 with me and did not dare to take it out. :)

Steal This Car?

I recently read a short piece by a well known photographer in which the author stated that the current fashion among gallerists is for exhibited photographs to have titles. I'm not sure what I think about this trend, but it does have the possible benefit of forcing the photographer to think one more time before releasing the work into the wild. After brainstorming one provisional title, I looked up the price first editions of Abbie Hoffman's book. After 50 years, they are going for around $100. I could also go with, 'Cars, Cincinnati, OH, 2018' which, of course, is a total fiction.

Steal some good light this weekend.

Sh!t Sandwich

'Tis the season to photograph the holiday decorations in the house and around our neck of the woods to send to the friends and relatives we probably won't see face-to-face again this season. In some cases, that might be a good thing. But due to the world situation, it looks like I'm still not going to Japan anytime soon to see my family. Instead, I will send them a boatload of photos, hoping it tides them over. Anyway, it is often a good idea to bury the arty and conceptual shots in a mass of straight documentary photographs. In orchestral programming the modern piece is usually performed between two reliable standards, a technique the musicians often refer to as a shit sandwich.  

Standing in the shadow of a magnolia

 

The sun was low in the sky, projecting warm light on one side and revealing cool light on the other side of the partition. Even though the colors coming from the digital sensor were imposed by engineers in Japan, they appeared accurate to my eyes here south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Vision thang

During the pandemic, like most people probably, I've logged significantly more screen time than before, and I've noticed that after about a year and a half, it takes just a little longer for my eyes to readjust to normal viewing distances than it did before. The other morning, I did a little experiment where I tried to simulate what the view through the living room window looks like to me after about an hour spent scrolling on the iPad. I used the 'in camera' multiple exposure feature on my little digital camera along with manual focus and I got pretty close. 

Omicron rising

Have you ever explored the various curated collections that Apple Photos creates for you? Mostly they are fun, if not downright silly, but I do like to think about the choices that seemingly make no sense, and try to figure out why Siri made a particular selection. Like this image. It popped up in my 'Flowers' collection this morning. What?! I have to say, it does sort of capture the sense of foreboding I'm feeling about things at the moment. Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water... Rolleiflex SL66, 80mm lens, Tri-X.

Transplants

Judging by the number of old exhaust systems splayed out across the tarmac, I suppose there must be a decent amount of money to be made in recycling old parts from totaled vehicles these days. Either that, or folks are just scraping by and they are getting creative just to survive.  

Garden rose

Sometimes the speed at which a freshly cut rose starts to drop its petals is a bit shocking. They look so stable on the plant! And sometimes, too, it seems that the more beautiful a flower is when picked, the less time it sticks around for you to admire. Well, at least one moment in this flower's existence has been captured as an image. I'm hoping that the little rose bud will start to open soon.

The four horsemen revisited...

Years ago, I saw a cartoon - probably in The New Yorker - that showed the four major Fall holidays represented by the four horsemen of the apocalypse. It seemed a bit contrived to me because, in my view, no way is Thanksgiving an apocalyptic holiday. But a new version of the cartoon in which Thanksgiving replaced with Black Friday might actually work really well.

Anyway, hope the light is good wherever you spend Black Friday.

Picture Window

A couple of years ago, I came home to find this young turkey hanging out in the yard, literally a few feet from our picture window. So, naturally, I made a photograph. At the time, I thought it was a little unusual to see a wild turkey in the front yard, but just this morning I read an article in The Washington Post about turkeys hanging out on college campuses and similar safe spaces. I guess our neighborhood must seem pretty hospitable to a wild turkey. Alas, appearances can be deceiving, because today we'll be dining on one of his relatives.

Single petal

One of my favorite jazz tunes is 'Single Petal of a Rose' by Duke Ellington. But my favorite version of the tune by far is the one recorded live at Kitano's in NYC by Frank Kimbrough a few years ago. I was hoping to catch him live at one point, but sadly that isn't going to happen. This image was recorded using a new Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens with an old school design and rendering. Classic, like Ellington.

The satisfactions of downward facing dog

Sometimes practice is rewarding in its own right. Just executing a seemingly straightforward photograph where the technical aspects are achieved to your liking can be quite grounding, like nailing a downward facing dog in yoga. You end the session knowing that your muscles got a proper stretch that day. In this case, there was focus stacking and exposure blending to contend with, in addition to lighting and composition. Issues faced everyday by those of us who work in this medium. 

Still life with lunch

It is the time of the year for Satsuma oranges. I think they go really well paired with a lunch that is served up in a fine black bento box. This box is a daily driver, but I also have some boxes in my collection that are a little too nice for actual food.

Rituals and memories

I can't remember anymore how we got started on this little ritual, but for a short period of time, I used to take my son with me to the car wash on Saturday mornings, mainly, I think, to get out of the house for a bit. He seemed to enjoy being enveloped in the cascades of water and soap, I certainly did, and I would also end up taking a few snaps of the micro-drama being played out on the windshield. At the time, I thought these were fun little abstracts to make, but now I find that they trigger memories of our excursions. It's funny how that works.

Photo haiku

 

By this time in the history of the medium, I suspect that most serous photographers are familiar with Garry Winogrand's famous statement that he made photographs in order 'to see what things look like when photographed'. Every once in a while, one finds that even the most quotidian scene or fleeting moment in the world looks pretty amazing when photographed.

Seeing things

The last storm that came through the area did some serious damage to the trees. But there are also branches that broke and didn't fall all the way to the ground. Months later, they remain suspended mid-fall. This branch has the form of a figure, which I thought was worth remembering.

I hope your weekend is memorable and that the light is interesting, too.

Time heals all wounds

I'm sure the young love birds spending time beneath this tree thought their carvings would last longer than they actually have, not that many of them have returned to verify. The tree is turning their marks into scars over time, and these mysterious forms are in some way more interesting, I think, than the originals. The Fujifilm GA645Zi is a really nice camera to bring along on a hike. With the slow speed film I used on this occasion, it is kind of hard to tell whether this is a digital or a film image. These days, I'm tending to prefer more grain and other analog properties in my film images. If I want a grainless high fidelity look, I can achieve that with one of my digital cameras.

A match made in heaven

A number of years ago, I purchased the cheapest Leica lens I could find, a copy of the 50mm screw mount Elmar from the early 1950s. Believe it or not, back then, the price was only about $150. My intent was to adapt it to one of my digital mirrorless cameras. When I finally got around to shooting with it, though, I was pretty underwhelmed with the results, and the lens was relegated to the back of a shelf in my studio. Much later, I picked up a copy of the Leica IG that was in perfect condition and decided to mount the old Elmar on it. In contrast to the behavior on digital, the film results were quite enchanting, and so the two have been together ever since. 

Giant

For whatever reason, this old trailer sparked a train of thought about drive-in theaters. I've never actually been to a drive-in theater, at least not that I can remember, but of course, I am aware of them as a fixture of mid 20th century culture. I kind of wish they would make a comeback, as I would much prefer the experience of watching a movie from the comfort of my car with its killer sound system, than have to breath the same air as a bunch of other folks in an enclosed cinema. Actually, once when I was living in Austin, TX, I remember sitting outside watching the movie 'Giant' projected onto the wall of nearby warehouse.

Accept

Sometimes it feels as if photography is a struggle between the photographer and their preconceived notions about what a photograph should look like. An image about Fall color needs to show a tree in a pristine woodland environment. So, my initial approach was to try to frame this shot in a way that excluded the traffic signs. In the end, though, out of all the images I made, I preferred the one that shows the Fall color in its actual environment. I did exclude the miserable little house that looks like a pizzeria from the frame, however.

Baldessari's persimmons

We recently discovered a wild persimmon tree growing on our property, and the fruit is ripening this season. What I want to know is, what are the odds of three wild persimmons arranging themselves in a straight line like this?  

They sure don't make 'em like they used to...

... which is probably a really good thing, if I'm being honest. But that being said, this sweet old truck is hard to resist, and I'm pretty sure I could keep it running well far into the future, all on my own. Who knows, these older vehicles might catch on again as EVs gain in popularity and the internal combustion engine goes the way of, shall we say, cellulose nitrate based film. 

SERVICE!

Whenever the rotten 'SERVICE' light comes on in my vehicle, a sense of dread begins to permeate my being, building over time as the color of the LEDs goes from yellow to bright red. Ignore at your own risk. The last time it came on, I was out over $3K in repairs. Fortunately, this time it was just a few hundred dollars. And of course, I can always do a little photo walk while I'm waiting for the work to be completed.

I hope you find interesting light wherever you may find yourself this weekend.