Kiss the sky!

Is there such a thing as a landscape that is just too damn unattractive to photograph in its natural state? Too bad if you happen to live in such a place! But wait! Help is on the way. We now have sky replacement technologies driven by artificial intelligence that are actually pretty convincing. 

Personally, I don't believe that anywhere is too ugly to be photographed, but I happened to be out on a cloudless day, which kind of stinks because, you know, a good photograph demands an interesting sky, and so why not spice things up a little bit by adding one with a couple of mouse clicks? Of course, we've been manipulating photos basically since the dawn of photography, so no judgement, but this is just so darn easy to do. 

Personally, I'm more interested in the upcoming body replacement and age reduction technologies.

A stable frame of reference

Thankfully, it appears that the Universe in general has not been perturbed too much by human activity — so far at least. No matter how crazy the weather patterns may be here on the home planet, its movement through space relative to the sun remains pretty stable. I've noticed the angle of the light in the sky has taken on its Fall character — it sure comes on suddenly — and I like the longer shadows and warmer color balance that characterize this time of the year. For me, the end of summer is usually filled with photo-ennui, but Fall is a new season with good light. 

Thick as a brick

A formalist study in composition or a comment on the state of the urban environment? Or maybe neither? Perhaps a better way to frame things: the record of one person's experience. As part of a series, could these recordings, if we paid attention, teach us something? Things we might normally miss as our attention meanders during the course of our day-to-day.

Carpe diem

You just never know what you are going to discover when you go out photographing. We were in a pretty remote location, meandering along a country road toward our destination for the day, when we came across a large industrial complex of butler buildings and what appear to be huge piles of railroad ties. The towers made from these utilitarian pieces of wood are quite amazing, a kind of sculpture in the landscape in the middle of nowhere in particular. We spent about ten minutes or so photographing these objects, which were as mysterious to me in some ways as the statues on Easter Island.

Intentional camera movement on super slow film

 

Using a slow emulsion such as Lomo Babylon 13 opens up the possibility of shooting wide open on a sunny day, which might be useful for capturing environmental portraits. Another use case for low ISO film is ICM photography. If you stop down the aperture to f/5.6, f/8, or beyond, you often will be shooting at or below 1/15 sec, ideal for blurring water and clouds if you are on a tripod, or doing ICM if that is your cup of tea. Naturally, you are free to adjust your exposures to taste. Camera movements during exposure involve a certain element of chance, so you may end up with many unusable frames at first. For this reason, it might be a good idea to practice using your phone or digital camera to get an idea of the possibilities before blasting through several rolls of film. The lack of apparent grain in the above ICM images added to the overall feel of 'flow', a good match with my artistic intent. I'll be doing more film based ICM work for sure.

A short walk with the Nikkormat FTn, the 50 mm f/2 and a roll of Lomo Babylon 13

In May, I decided to stock up on all the film I thought I would shoot over the summer months, and so, imagining the sunny conditions ahead, I added a number of rolls of low ISO films to my shopping cart. As things turned out, this summer was so wet I didn't break out the first roll of Lomo Babylon 13 until the middle of September. The other day, I loaded a roll into the Nikkormat FTn with the 50mm f/2 attached. The meter on my Nikkormat is still working well after half a century and, believe it or not, it goes down all the way to ASA12. So, I was all set.

There are many reasons to choose these types of emulsions beyond just the fun factor, of course. Back in the day, photographers like Lewis Baltz were attracted to super slow films because of, among other things, their fine grain structure. This would allow them to achieve the larger print sizes associated with medium format gear using more compact 35mm cameras. Another reason to shoot with these films, a reason that is popular these days, is to facilitate the use of wider apertures under daylight conditions without having to use a neutral density filter. 

I shot the silhouette of the mobile wide open at f/2 to get an idea about the out of focus rendering of the lens. Pretty okay, and similar to other lenses of that time period, I would say.

You can't judge a film on the basis of a single roll, hopefully the sunny conditions will hold for a while longer. But so far, there is not much to complain about here. The only real frustration was the high degree of curl to the negatives. It'll be fun to go out with other camera and lens combinations and see what happens.

In the open landscape

It was great to be out in the open landscape again yesterday, photographing. It was the first time in months I was not breathing humid air that had blown in from the tropics. It was the first day in weeks without rain. In contrast to the late summer, which can be photographically challenging, the fall, with its clear air and lower angled light, is a pleasant time to be out shooting. I was on privately held land that has been preserved in essentially its original pristine state. Except for the odd beer can; it is difficult if not impossible to escape beer it seems. Anyway, it always feels satisfying coming home with a set of new images to work through.

I hope you have pleasant light this weekend, where ever you may be.

Chasing photographs today!

The sun is out in full force with no rain clouds in sight, and we have our first day of Fall-ish temperatures today, as well. So, hell yes, I am going out to shoot. I'll be taking a film rig as well as my digital camera. I haven't exposed a roll of film outside of the studio in about a month, and I'll be shooting with one of Lomography's low ISO films. There should be plenty of light. I hope to develop the negatives this afternoon. And I have a replacement macro lens for my digital system to experiment with as well. I hope you all have a great day, too. Today's image was taken with my phone as I was gassing up the car.

Marking time

In May I started letting myself believe that we were emerging from a little over a year of travel restrictions, health precautions, and the like. That things soon would be getting back to normal, or at least that we were headed for a new state of 'normal' that was a little looser. It is nice, perhaps even necessary, to be able to mark the different chapters of your life precisely in time. Ambiguity of time tends to add a certain level of anxiety to the mix. 

For about 20 years, I regularly attended a conference in Los Angeles. On every visit, I would make a point of going to the Getty Center to view the art and make photographs. It was something I looked forward to, a mini-ritual of sorts. I no longer attend this conference and that is fine, but I'm kind of looking forward to discovering the next little photographic ritual. Maybe next year...

Did I give up on this camera too soon?

Even though it was five or six years ago now, the announcement and ad campaign surrounding the release of the Olympus Pen F digital camera is still pretty fresh in my mind! Never in my life have I lusted after an unseen and untouched piece of photographic gear as much as I did for this little chunk of metal, glass, and plastic. And, once I actually had the camera in hand, I was very much delighted with it as a piece of industrial design. Marvelous! But, in actual use, not so much. I never really bonded with it as a picture making tool, whatever that really means. But here's the thing: going back through the files it produced, I find that I really like the images. The high pixel density on the smallish sensor gives a definite 'look' to the files that is very appealing. At this stage, the point is moot (for me), but I do find myself wondering if I gave up on this camera too soon. Very much a case of letting thoughts of gear get in the way of just making art. Or?

California dreaming...

It was a beautiful winter evening in Ventura, CA a few years ago and I was relaxing after a long day of ass-sitting (attending a conference). As I walked along the beach pondering my ass numbing existence, I noticed that all of the cliched elements of a terrific sunset photograph were present before me: a lovely orange, blue, and pink sky; the moon; a couple of sea birds flying near the horizon; and Catalina Island. Naturally, I had left my Canon 6D (the first digital camera I was ever very fond of) in the hotel room and was only armed with an iPhone. It was the perfect tool for capturing this sort of photograph.

How to cook a wolf

Last week, I had a long drive through the countryside ahead of me, and visions of landscape photography opportunities were dancing in my head. Alas, my dreams were mostly scuttled by the constant, and I do mean constant, rain. Tropical storms and remnants of storms have been pelting the Southeast and turning everything to mud. At one point, I was having an informal lunch break in a little park when the rain unexpectedly stopped for a while, so I spent some time wandering along the banks of the river making photographs. Nothing too exotic, pretty slim pickings, but I did enjoy getting out and shooting some. It was still nourishment of a kind. 

Figuring out what's next...

It was great to see a body of work hanging on gallery walls and I tried to savor each of the moments. But along with those wonderful feelings comes the realization that it is time to move forward with new work. And so, the cycle continues.
 

Photography is not a group sport

I had a little time before the opening reception for my show, and was touring a historic house this morning. As I was walking around the space I noticed this composition. I wasn’t sure if what I had in mind would work, but my framing flattened the field to make a somewhat abstracted image. I find it hard to get anything creative when I am in a tour group, and tend to avoid them as much as possible, but today my persistence paid off.

Good light this weekend!

Bokeh before bokeh

I was doing some online research on a couple of photographers and came across the work of Chris McCaw. Hadn’t looked at this work in a while. Later, I saw some party lights hanging from trees and decided to play around with bokeh. The out of focus lights were following a curved trajectory that reminded me of the moon a little. People have become obsessed with bokeh in recent years, but it’s worth remembering that photographers have played with it for ages. I remember as a kid in the pre-internet days reading an article in a photography magazine that instructed you to spritz a little water on a UV filter and then place the filter in the freezer for half an hour before putting it back onto your lens and shooting Christmas lights. I remember being amazed at the results a couple weeks later when I got my film back from the drugstore. 

The Charmed Life of an Artist

Today I will be hanging a show of my images, and the kind people at the museum have provided me with a wonderful little garage apartment for the next few days. The window glass is over a century old and layers a nice optical distortion over the world around me.

But is it Insta-worthy?

I’ve always had a certain (I think) healthy skepticism about the value of social media. It is enjoyable to put work out there, but pitfalls abound. Early on, I always worried about posting my best work online because someone might steal it. So I tended to post stuff I was less attached to. I suspect a lot of folks are the same. And I never really appreciated the emphasis on likes and follows. I’ve calmed down about most of this stuff in the intervening years. Anyway, I took this photograph about a decade ago and thought it was kind of cool in an urban exploration sort of way. Not necessarily a masterpiece, but certainly Flickr-worthy. I have a folder with all my old Flickr images in it. Looking at them again reminded me that in the early days, Flickr was a hell of a lot of fun, and I learned so much about working up images. Recently, the Flickr fun factor has dropped off for me. Indeed, a few months ago I shut down my stream. Turns out, I can tolerate one of these platforms at a time, and at least for the time being, Instagram seems to be the main game in town. Of course, that will change at some point, too.

The secret reasons we trip the shutter

Although he is one of my favorite visual artists, I did not have the work of Lewis Baltz in mind when I made this photograph. It was instead all about a childhood memory of me throwing fastballs against a similar shed. Even then, I  knew in my heart of hearts that with my total lack of control, I had no chance whatsoever of becoming a pitcher. Instead, I took my solace in the sound of the baseball smacking into the door. And the lovely pockmarks left behind after each impact. It was fun to find evidence of a kindred spirit!

On this day, I was shooting with the first version of the Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lens on a digital camera. This old lens is simply marvelous -- on film or on digital. Possibly the best hundred dollars I ever spent.

Oh, Snapseed! Can't believe that's my edit.

It was my first trip to the Tetons, my first time using the Snapseed app to edit photos, and I had spent most of the day at an altitude of 13,000 feet, so I am inclined to give myself a pass here. But boy, I sure had the punchy black-and-white conversion turned up to eleven. My eyes started to sizzle when I chanced upon this image in the archive the other day. If I were to re-work it now, I'd like to think it would be a lot more chill, but I can't find the original raw file. C'est la vie.

Out the window

I have always enjoyed a leisurely road trip across the country, and have many fond memories of my journeys decades ago from Austin to LA and back to visit family and friends. As time goes on, though, and the country seemingly outgrows its infrastructure, the simple act of driving requires increasing amounts of energy and focus. I mean, I can't even remember the last time I used cruise control. These days, I actually welcome my time in the passenger seat, and if your route includes some of the smaller country roads, you can often get pretty decent images shooting out the window of the car. 

Wander Freely

I've always been more than a little curious about the minimum amount of light required to make an exposure. Even back in the pre-digital days, I would often go out and photograph after my shift at work, just to see if I could catch something interesting. I almost never did, but it is fun to discover the practical edges of your equipment's capabilities. With its modern image stabilization system, I've learned that hand held exposures of a second or more are possible with my current digital set up. It is liberating to leave the tripod at home and just wander freely. Even with no moon, there is usually a surprising amount of artificial light available courtesy of your home town. In this image, the illumination was from a single street lamp, but often, interesting mixed lighting situations can be found. The image, while low key, is a satisfying representation of my experience that evening. The yards around the neighborhood that I see every day come alive in different ways in the middle of the night. And, it is about ten degrees cooler to boot.

Evening Picnic - Daily Practice

Not long after I crossed into adulthood (at least as measured by age), I became interested in meditation. Part of my journey involved collecting many, many books, but not actually reading that many of them. One of the books was 'One Continuous Mistake' by Gail Sher. I found it again recently after many years tucked away in a drawer. I'm not a zen buddhist, but the book still holds up pretty well, I think. Although it is targeted at writers, it makes sense for photographers or any creative person. She expresses buddhism's four noble truths for writers, and here they are adapted to photographers:

    Photographers photograph
    Photography is a process
    You don't know what your photography will be until the end of the process
    If photography is your practice, the only way to fail is not to photograph

It is a useful way to frame things. There's more to it, of course -- a good reason to pick up the book.

Is Photography Your Practice?

This is an image I made when I was a kid. A scan of the original darkroom print in fact. Looks like it is properly fixed, which is more than I can say about some of our wedding photos, which were made by a professional (with a Leica). But I digress. What attracted me to this scene were the crystal clear water and the ripples on the surface of the pool of water. It is a pleasant composition, and I find that I am still interested in some of the same compositional elements to this day. I came across this quote, which resonates:

 
... and I am sure it is the same accumulated practice that [helps any artist] reveal a landscape no-one has seen before. 

--Kenzabura Oë

Ready to receive

 

I've heard that intention is the readiness to receive. That is one way to put it. I was getting ready for bed and turning off all the lights. The only illumination was from the streetlights outside. I sometimes wish I could turn them off, too. Then, I noticed the serving vessels, their shapes emerging from the darkness. So, I grabbed my camera and made a few exposures. In the morning, I liked them well enough and I was happy to have acted on my instincts.

Turn around

I was reading through some Sibeleus the other night, and as I put my instrument down to take a short break, I noticed some pretty interesting reflections in the window behind me. I recalled that often repeated nugget of photographic advice that reminds you to turn around and look back at where you've come from as well as where you are going. Once I discover a location that offers interesting photographic opportunities, I tend to return multiple times to get as much out of it as possible.

Too lazy for filters

It is definitely convenient to stitch together multiple frames to generate a panorama in post production, but on this day, I really should have had a polarizing filter with me. Frankly, I'm usually too lazy to chuck one in my bag as I go out to shoot. You can simulate the effect of many filters using software, but correcting the sky on this image would take a little bit of effort, and probably not be worth it. It might be easier to return to the scene and start from scratch. That kind of reinforces the lazy habit.

Fortunately, the other images from this particular shoot were made on a 6x17 pinhole camera. They turned out just fine. 

Romancing the phone

I've got to hand it to the famous fruit company. Their phone, watch and tablet all work in concert to have my back. It's weirdly comforting, sometimes. Other times, it's weirdly creepy. My tablet fishes out old photographs from my stream and features them on my Home Screen, and so, a different image from the past greets me every morning. At first, I thought this was a silly gimmick, but over time I've grown to kind of appreciate it. My technology has a different set of biases about photography than I do, and brings many overlooked images and memories to my attention. Like this image from 2008, the dawn of the phone photography era. We went to our first farm-to-table event just outside of Atlanta and my EDC camera at the time was the iPhone 3G. The camera had an amazing 2 MP of resolution. While I'm used to feeling nostalgic about old prints, romancing phone photos from the past is going to take a little getting used to.

Creating images in people's heads

Which of your images tend to have the greatest impact on your viewers? Is it the ones that are the most overtly political, too clever by half? Or do you find that the more open ended images actually communicate more effectively? I mean the ones that invite the viewer to linger within the picture plane. Which of your photographs tend to entice folks to create images and narratives in their heads?

Good light this weekend!

Typology of rot

I think my son fully intended to use these logs for a woodworking project of some sort, but it seems that nature had other ideas. The rotting process has proceeded much more quickly than expected due to the constant rain around here. I'm no wood worker, so who knows, these logs may be like hunks of cheese where the ripe bits can simply be trimmed off. At any rate, does presenting a series of images in a typological grid still make sense? Is it an invitation to 'look longer', a hackneyed technique, or a misguided assertion of some kind of universality? Something to consider, but in the context of a study like this, I think it works.

Fancy fifty > nifty 50?

As much as I love my nifty fifty, if I am honest, I have to admit that my fancy fifty is also pretty freaking awesome. Shooting wide open at f/1.2 sure can be fun, especially with modern autofocus systems. It kind of takes most of the pressure off, knowing that your camera has your back and at least something is going to be sharp. If you noodle around a bit, you can probably get enough well focused images to cover yourself. We are certainly spoiled for choice these days. Anyway, I am glad to be able to own one state-of-the-art lens along with all my cheap as chips legacy glass. It is an important calibration point for me.