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.