Anti-Epic

You don't need to invest in a bright orange puffy coat and fly to Iceland to make decent photographs. In fact, after scrolling around Instagram for any length of time, you might come to the conclusion that staying home might actually be better for your photography. That said, no one would likely sign up for the Boring Places Photographic Workshops. Would they?

A Friend's Garden

Sometimes a diptych can really clarify the poetry you felt at the time you clicked the shutter. And invite your viewers to linger a little longer, too. A sequence of two images seems optimum for me. What about you? What length of sequence do you prefer?

Overcoming Paralysis

One of the enjoyable things about shooting with color film is that your color palette has effectively been chosen for you by the manufacturer. Ektar is Ektar and Portra, Portra. With digital images often comes the paralysis of too many options, including monochrome. One approach is to try to make your digital images look like your film photographs. Not necessarily to emulate film per se, but just to learn about how color works in a photograph.

Hyperlocal Archeology

After every major rain, I end up finding old shards of glass at the low point of our yard. You can tell it is old because the colors are clearly from a different era. There are usually interesting surface marks, too. I find fragments of pottery, bottles, the lot. Of course, I am collecting it. The best origin theory I've heard so far is the one my son put forward: that a gardener from a previous generation lined flower beds with this stuff to help with drainage. I keep hoping gold coins would turn up, but no such luck. Which tends to support the drainage theory.

Fences Make Good Neighbors

We're using elaeagnus and bamboo in tandem just because you can never be too sure. Know what I mean? Anyway, bamboo always looks pretty spectacular after it rains. As the weather gets more and more tropical in our area, I wonder which species will continue to flourish and which will struggle.

Linear

After days of rain, little brown mushrooms spring up all over the yard. In black and white, the grass looks more like straw, somehow more exotic than ‘lawn’ and certainly more pleasing to my eye. I don’t know how the mycelium decides which direction to grow, but sometimes it looks downright intentional.

Good light this weekend, fellow traveler.

Unintentional Camera Movement

Conventional wisdom tends to favor order over chaos, planning over rambling. We are often instructed to 'photograph with intent' to get 'meaningful photographs'. I wouldn't argue with that, about shooting with intent, I mean. It's just that sometimes you need to be sleepwalking to get the ego out of the way and allow your intent to manifest itself. The other evening we were streaming and yours truly was on the edge of sleep. The ole camera fell to the floor and I guess the shutter was actuated as it left my hands. Now, I just need to learn how to do this while putting one foot in front of the other during the day...

Evidence

The history of photography is replete with instances of folks finding 'evidence' of an alien presence in their photographs. To be honest, I wasn't wearing my fine art hat or conjuring my inner Larry Sultan or Mike Mandel when I made this particular snap. Nope, I took this photograph simply because the cars on blocks in the yard reminded me of what I see all the time right here in my little corner of the universe. And speaking of the Universe, when I was prepping the image for posting, I noticed a little piece of schmutz midway up the sky just left of center. On closer inspection, it looks to be a drone of some sort. That, or a very small alien spacecraft. It has been over a decade, so I thought it would be safe to post. I'll see if modern software can enhance the details like in those NCIS shows. Stay tuned.

Making Hay

This farmer appears to have had their act together. Never have I seen so much hay in one place before. And for once, I made a little hay, too, by getting a nice clean set of exposures of the scene as we were speeding past at 55 mph. They were good enough to stitch together into a panorama once I got home.

Wabi-sabi, maybe?

Here is another image from the series I captured on my trip to the beach a while back, in black and white this time to allow us to move past the lovely color of the light. When looking at this image, I do think there is a nice balance among the excellent resolution and contrast produced by the lens, the crisp detail revealed by the sensor (no anti-aliasing filter), and the small amount of sensor noise. Perfection and imperfection in balance, you might say. The overall aesthetic is very pleasing to my eye. There's only one problem. Soon after this trip, I dropped the camera on a hard surface and it was never quite the same after that, to the point that I ended up selling it for parts.

Tasting notes: Panasonic G9 with 15mm f/1.7 lens, ISO 640.

Poor Humpty Dumpty

Are you able to distance yourself from the emotional content of your photographs and home in on a consideration of their more technical properties? One of the benefits of putting your work out there is that your precious little eggies become a little less so. It reminds me of those scenes in police procedurals, my favorite being the Endeavour series, where the team gathers 'round the corpse to discuss the autopsy findings. At some level, our images are just slabs of meat, too, I reckon. I took this photograph on a trip to the Gulf Coast a couple of months prior to the onset of the pandemic. I'm particularly fond of the entire set, but why? Is it just the nostalgia surrounding my last pre-Covid travels? The wonderful light at sunset on the beach? Can anything be attributed to the technical properties of the image? The lens used? The camera? 

If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now

You know, sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. Caught this view on the walk home from brunch a while ago. Glad I did, too, because it is no longer there.

Tasting notes: Leica R4s, 35 mm f/2.8.

Making Connections

We love wandering the grounds at Glenstone, so it was interesting, almost uncanny, to observe recently how closely one of our local parks resembles it. Never made that particular connection before. Do your shutter therapy sessions help you make these kinds of connections? One hopes. Shutter or no, spending time in nature is surely one of the best ways to nurture one's mental health.

I hope you have plenty of good light and time to spend wandering your local patch this weekend, fellow traveler. 

A Good Day at the Office

I’m sure glad I had I decent camera with me the other day so I could snag a high quality photograph of the scene in front of me. A modern phone in Airplane Mode would have probably been fine too, I suppose, but far less fun for me. The weather hasn’t broken yet this far South, but there are other early signs of Fall starting to show. Too, we were between thunderstorms and the clouds were dramatic. No need for any AI enhancements while editing the photo. A good day.

Mysterioso

Don't know how common they are, but every once in a while I'll drive past a place on the side of some local highway in the middle of nowhere that sells cast cement statues. Do folks actually part with their hard earned cash to acquire fake classical sculpture for their yards? Or do you pick one up for your favorite uncle's burial plot? That's just Nutty as Thelonious Monk might say.  

Lookin’ at Art

I would say that in general, I prefer the East Wing to the West Wing of the National Gallery. It has to do as much, if not more, with the physical space as the art itself. On this day, the featured exhibit was a bit crowded, so I had a bit of a wander while waiting for a lull in the number of people visiting the show, at which point I dashed in.

Die Hard

It can be difficult to change old habits. In my photography, I have always tended to exclude people from my images, but lately I’m allowing a few strangers to enter my frame. It does make the final result more dynamic and I am liking that. Luckily for this photograph I was good and far away, so I didn’t feel I was intruding on anyone’s personal space.

We develop habits in the art we look at, too, as well as the things we read. I’m trying hard these days to expand my looking. To make it work, though, I’m finding that I must stop looking at some of my old favorites. And man, I’ve really gotta spend less time online.

A Garden Of One’s Own

With family and friends scattered across the globe, I started this blog a couple of years ago as one way to keep in touch. Faster and cheaper than the old fashioned letter, with the possible additional advantage of randomly improving the day of a stranger or two along the way. Naturally, like most people, I communicate using other forms of social media like IG, too, even though my feelings about those platforms are pretty mixed at best. I always thought that writing an obscure old school blog like this one would be a bit like screaming into a black hole, but funnily enough, that hasn’t really turned out to be the case at all. Tending my little garden is enough.

Sometimes A Rainbow Is Enough

My wife was the one who noticed the rainbow first, and pointed it out to the hyper observant photographer. Well, at least I got the shot. 

Sometimes a rainbow is enough.

Color or Black-n-White?

On a good day, you would ideally know if an image is destined for color or black and white -- intention and all that -- but the fact is many times the decision falls into a bit of a gray area. Sorry, couldn't resist, but the point is still true. It ain't always easy to know, is all I mean. In the end, I decided this image was about the color, the yellow/green of late summer. Enough of the graphic aspects of the branches against the wall came through in color. 

I suppose you could always change your mind later, but you never step into the same river twice. A metaphor for another day.

Meanwhile, good light to you this weekend, fellow traveler.

The Ferry To Gee's Bend

The ferry from Camden, AL to Gee's Bend is a dead simple affair. No ups, no extras. On this particular cold winter's day, we were first in line and I elected to photograph from the relative warmth of the passenger's seat of the car. Even if you live in the Deep South, always get the seat warmers when purchasing a vehicle. En route, I got out and took some film shots, but they just confirmed that the quality of the light was indeed pretty bad. One of the Gee's Bend quilters was celebrating her 60th birthday and we were planning to drop in for a short visit. Great art can, and often does, arise from humble circumstances and isolated conditions.

Seasonal

When I made this photograph, the ambient temperature was in the mid 90's, but it felt a bit hotter because of the humidity. Although the weather has yet to change, the neighborhood children are headed back to school this week to start their 'Fall' semester. 'Fall', if I remember correctly, used to refer to the fact that the leaves were starting to change colors and fall off the trees. Perhaps now it relates to our garden flowers being roasted by the afternoon sun and starting to fall over as August moves toward September. I suppose I need to reset my internal clock to reflect the new weather patterns, and I suppose the children already have.

Secret Spot

Modern life sometimes seems like it is filled with an abundance of minor indignities and frustrations. A cornucopia of annoyance and humiliation we do our best to endure. As exemplified by travel this summer, for example. In such a world, one must embrace any small victories that present themselves. Such as discovering seating for two conveniently hidden behind a large structural column and facing a large window looking West at an airport we frequent. It is a place to enjoy some mask-free peace and quiet along with one's coffee prior to being herded onto the plane. A room with a view you might say.

Holdin' Out

Ain't much barbering going on at this location anymore, but there is always a vehicle parked nearby, so the space is being used for something I suppose. Anyway, I think these folks have probably held out too long; at this point, they're the proud owners of a teardown. It reminds me of the time I wanted to buy a nice antique sports car from an older acquaintance. The car was worth too much to him and he wouldn't budge on his inflated asking price. Years later, it's still sitting in his damn driveway.

Giverny, But In Vienna?

 

Visiting botanical gardens can provide plenty of inspiration for leveling up your own garden at home. The problem is, seeing the number of gardeners at work reminds you of how damn hard it is. Like photography, it's about the process...

At any rate, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens is a wonderful location to visit in Vienna, VA. It was a clear day, but I'm still glad I had a weather sealed camera with me. Because, you know, sweat.

Noticing the Light

I came of age before the existence of the internet, you see, and as such, I have certain biases. Pigs sweat, for example. But, alas, I guess not. Hmm... I suppose I need to update my idioms... 

But anyway, it was an overcast and humid day with intermittent rain and I was as uncomfortable as a hot pig. But I had a good feeling about the quality of the soft light, so I took the picture. Leap of faith, you know? Turns out, the light was pretty nice after all.

Greetings Earthlings

Somehow, I feel as though the digicam aesthetic matches pretty well with the art of Jeff Koons, especially now that such cameras are essentially 'antiques', and somewhat back in style again. So, I am happy to report that I used my Olympus XZ-1 (circa 2011) for this quick snap of the 37 foot tall 'Split Rocker' at Glenstone the other day. It was a warm and intensely humid morning, not really ideal conditions for photography, which is why I chose the old Oly instead of something fancier. Plus, it allowed me to leave my phone at home, providing a few hours of respite from my digital overlords... Anyhoo, even eleven years on, the 10 megapixel CCD sensor was capable of producing some very pleasant images. And, with modern editing tools, you can really bring out the best these little digicams have to offer. 

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveller. 

Things That Veil

Sometimes the weirdest things will catch your eye. I mean, there was no plan to shoot an image of pond scum. There is no ongoing project about it. But the green and magenta coloration and the interaction with the reflection of the sky were interesting in the moment. The fact of the matter is that I’ve never seen anything quite like it and I wanted to be able to look at it later in more detail. On my computer screen. Things that veil, partially block our view, obscure - I guess there’s a symbolism there too if you want it to be so.

American Silence: Highly Recommended

Go ahead and put a pin in whatever it is you’re doing right now. Now, get yourself over to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and spend some quality time looking at the extensive retrospective exhibition of Robert Adams’s photography. Seeing sixty years of work together in one show was a remarkable experience, and is not something that can be captured in a book (although there is one available). Go calibrate your eyes and sensibilities. There is much to learn about the medium of photography, Adams’s changing approach, all of it. Worth your time, and you’ll thank yourself later.

From Sea to Shining Sea

Over the years I’ve learned that this is one of the kinds of scene that catch my eye and make me want to photograph. It isn’t so much about the specific place as it is about my eye and what’s left of my brain. These anonymous industrial structures are everywhere. From sea to shining sea. The light, too, of course, matters. This particular photograph was made in Maine somewhere, I think, but I don’t remember the details. Sometimes these kinds of images become part of a series, or a diptych, and sometimes they get filed away in my archive. Lonely formalist studies I encounter from time to time.

Old School Photographer

I have no idea who this person was, but I’ve carried his photograph with me throughout most of my life. I look at it every once in a while, usually when I am going through a Kondo phase. It must be the case that he was friends with my relatives, possibly even my parents, but as far as I can tell, he was never the topic of dinner time conversation or holiday reminiscences. An old acquaintance of some sort. Someone’s army buddy. My connection to the photograph has everything to do with the fact that he is using a camera, and that is probably the only reason I’ve never thrown it away. I picked up a copy of a similar Graflex at a local camera store a few years ago and it was my first experience with a 4x5 camera. That is our only connection.