Postcards from the Creative Journey

459 Extremes in Landscape Photography

Lembert Dome, Yosemite

I used to Photograph By Wandering Around (PBWA). Fred Picker called it “cruisin’ for snaps.” Happy accidents put us in the right place at the right time to make nice photographs. The trouble with that method of photography is that we spent much more time driving around than photographing. That said, this tactic works well when you are in search of a single image and have a lot of time.

The opposite of cruisin’ for snaps is what I would call photography by appointment or less charitably, trophy hunting. The quest is to duplicate a single image made by another photographer. Photographers find a photograph they wish to duplicate and research locations on the web using Google Maps to pinpoint the location. A further refinement uses various mobile apps to determine the “best” time to duplicate the photograph they found on the web. (See why it can be called trophy hunting?) The joy of discovery has been reduced to scheduling an appointment for a single image. With multiple locations, the journey becomes a photographic scavenger hunt. While it is exactly the opposite of the randomness of cruisin’ for snaps, it remains a quest for the single image.

We cruised and hunted for over a decade until we decided if we drove less and photographed more, we would probably get better images. We stopped cruising and established a base camp and began to photograph in one small area. The number and quality of photographs increased. We quickly blew by the obvious images and were able to get to the essence of the places we photographed. Single images became groups of images with a theme and we moved from single images to stories about the places we photographed.

458 The FENCE and I

The FENCE 

(With my photographs)

The FENCE Project in Durham was installed last week. In spite of some last minute changes in location, the Durham Public Arts Program constructed a fence (literally) overnight so the installation could be completed on time. Chris Ogden (Durham Public Arts Program), Sam Barzilay (United Photo Industries) with a little bit of help from yours truly completed the last section of the FENCE. In one of those strokes of serendipity, I was able to help install my own photographs on the FENCE.

If there is a FENCE installation in your city (Brooklyn, Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Santa Fe or Denver) you need to stop by and see it more than once. The scale of the exhibition is enormous. One can read about the size of the prints, but once you actually see how big the prints really are, it is impressive. The quality of the prints at exhibition size is very good. This is a first class exhibition. If you are not near any one of these sites please visit the FENCE web site to check out some wonderful photography.

457 Fixin’ To Get Ready

266 Chatham Street, Cary, NC

It’s getting near to that time where I need to be fixin’ to get ready for this year’s Photo Safari. The primary fixin’ surrounds a new piece of photographic hardware, the Panasonic G85. I already spent more than a couple of hours figuring out the manual. I still don’t have it down yet, but I do know that I will have to spend a few more hours looking over the big manual downloaded to my iPad. I’m pretty sure that I have the basics down, but sensitive, perceptive and innovative artistes, such as myself, tend to use the more obscure functions on the camera, so I have to spend a lot of time with the manual.

Reading the manual is nice (Who am I kidding? RTFM* is no fun at all.), but what really matters is to figure out how the controls work to make the camera do what I want it to do. I still remember (and laugh at) the antics the GH2 pulled on me when I hit an obscure combination of buttons. (September 8, 2011)

After spending the requisite time RTFM I headed down to Academy street to photograph. Nothing particular in mind, I just wanted to get out and see how the camera operated and if I could figure out the controls. I will probably need a few more sessions photographing to make sure I am comfortable changing settings on the camera in the field.

I am happy to report using the camera is very easy to use. There have been some wonderful handling refinements between the GH2 and G85 and that makes the G85 a joy to use. The learning curve from the GH2 to the G85 is not all that great, so the basic operations are quite similar. 

The next phase will be to see if I can get the images off the camera and into Light Room mobile because that’s what the photo safari will require. As the German Admiral once said, “If you fight in the North Atlantic, you train in the North Atlantic.” You have to learn to use your equipment under the same conditions you will have to use your equipment. That’s the next step. Preparation continues.

*Read the Manual

456 Return of the Prodigal Negative

The Prodigal Negative

(Don't worry, this will make sense in a few minutes.)

I continue to progress in creating the next chapter in my Long Term Project (LTP) of Academy Street (a re-photographic project comparing the changes in the neighborhood over the past thirty years). I continue to face issues in creating this project. Why wasn’t I a better photographer thirty years ago? Why did I mindlessly follow the Fred Picker method of organizing my large format negatives? Why didn’t I do a proper proof of all my large format negatives? It certainly would make this project a bit easier today. But I digress.

I’ve been tortured for the past few weeks by knowing I made a photograph twenty five years ago. If only I could find evidence I actually made the photograph physically instead of just thinking I made it. For quite a while I was wondering if I was having hallucinatory memories or actually made the photograph. One would think that an image that memorable would have made it past the “develop and file” state of progress, but it did not. I will chalk that omission up to the error of youth.

The good news is I finally found the negative. The bad news is that I don’t have a proof print. The good news is now I can scan the negative to get really good information. The bad news is I don’t have a scanner that will scan 5x7 negatives. Eventually, everything will work out and I will have another pair of “then and now” images for my project.

Post Script - Between the time I wrote this blog post and the time I made the photograph to go with the post, I misplaced the Prodigal Negative. I had to find the negative again. I found that amusing.

You are invited to the opening of the FENCE exhibit in Durham, North Carolina on Friday August 18, 2017. All the cool kids will be there and if you're in the area, you should be there too. I will be there and would love to meet you and talk some photography.

They even have Facebook Page for this event. Click on over and pick up the details.

455 - Meditation on Marriage

Meditation on Marriage

Somewhere in Wyoming, 1995

This photograph was made in Wyoming in September 1995. It was the only photograph made in this particular location because the numbered negatives before and after this one are of much different subject matter than this one. About the only thing I can remember about this photograph is that I chose the title of the image as I was composing it on the ground glass. This is not usually the way I do things, because my inability to create titles for my photographs is legendary. I even wrote an article about my inability to give my photographs artistically significant names.  See "A Rose by Any Other Name" on my website.  That's why the "Meditation on Marriage" image is memorable to me. 

The rock in the stream held firm against the current, not blocking the flow of the creek, but diverting the path around itself and being smoothed by the action of the world around it. For some reason it reminded me about marriage and how life passes around us while we remain steady.

It was a title that was not logically thought out, but an emotional reaction to the image on my camera’s ground glass. I made the photograph and moved on from that little stream to other views of Wyoming.

Please stop by The FENCE website and "like" My photographs of the Labyrinth. You do need to be facebook enabled to like my photographs. Hope that works for you.

Thanks for your support. 

Even more fun news this week. The "2017 Seeing in Sixes" publication by LensWork will include my photographs.  One of the images included in "Seeing in Sixes" is one from the May 7th blog post.