Postcards from the Creative Journey

746 - One for the Show

If you put an 8’ x10’ print on a gallery wall you only get one image. If the photographs are 8” x 10”, you have to come up with ten to twenty photographs. That’s an order of magnitude more ideas and work to cover the same gallery wall. I think it is a much larger challenge to create a large number of smaller prints.

It takes a lot more talent, effort and skill to create a wall full of meaningful photographs. When I see a single huge photograph on the wall I wonder “Is that all they’ve got?” Do they have more images to backstop the single huge photograph as part of a complete project, or do they just have one image?

745 - Abandoned, Not Empty - First Published 7/19/2015

There is a difference between abandoned and empty. The difference as I see (and photograph) is hope. Abandoned means no one will come back. Empty means there is no one here right now. I don’t like abandoned. When we were in Alkabo, North Dakota I had an opportunity to photograph the interior of an abandoned house. I made a photograph of the outside of the house to “set the scene.” Then I headed inside.

About forty years earlier an immigrant bachelor died suddenly. No one knew his next of kin and there was no family. The town buried him and just closed the door to his house. The door was still unlocked on the day we were there. Upon entering, we were transported back to the day he died. Clothes hung in the closet, unopened mail sat on the desk and magazines lay on a table. This place was abandoned. I could not photograph in this place. This photograph set the scene for a project that never happened.

744 - It’s That Line Thing

There is always a line to be crossed or not crossed. Sometimes the line is straight, sharp, clearly defined and there is a definite difference on either side of the line. Sometimes the line is curvy, wavy, blurred and fades off on the edges so you’re not sure really what or where the difference is on either side of the line.

I was OK with Adobe’s cloud replacement filter. That’s just fine. We’re just doing something photographers started doing a hundred and some years ago.

Adobe has now announced Neural Filters for Photoshop. While this functionality is in its infancy, there is no doubt it will be fully functional and working really well really soon. Neural Filters use Artificial Intelligence to change the facial expressions of a person. You want the person to be happy? Turn their head? Change the shadows on their face? You no longer need to work with your subject to effect those changes. All you need to do is move some sliders around and what we used to do in the studio is now done in the computer. (The only good thing I can think of that will come out of this is that we will now be able to have a driver's license/passport photo of us that really looks nice.)

Now that line is now really fuzzy and meanders all over the place. I’m not sure if photographic truth is even possible any more. I have not believed any photograph since the dawn of digital editing, but now Neural Filters gave me a big whack across the back to remind me that the days of “photographic truth” are way, way, way in the past.

743 - Obsessing Over the Details First Published 8/10/2014

Stuff that excites the very specialized only excites the specialized. Many people are not aware they should be impressed when they see something. I think this applies to all sorts of things where aficionados obsess over minutiae and describe their view in the most arcane terms. Read a wine review. There are all sorts of descriptions for how a wine tastes, smells and looks. Beer is rapidly approaching this level of specialization. “Black and White photographers” rhapsodize about the intricacies of tonal separation (especially in Zones II through IV) and I think there is an entire sub-culture obsessing over bokeh.

The average person (and there are quite a few of those) thinks wine is red or white, beer needs to be pale and cold and wonders why a black and white photograph wasn’t made in color.

Being a “photographer’s photographer” is nice, because your talents are appreciated by those that know what it takes to be good, but that’s a really small number of people. If you can appeal to your fellow photographers as well as the person on the street, then you have something going for you.

742 - The Whole Thing Is About The Clouds

A great sky can save a photograph. The quest is to find the right type of clouds, the right number of clouds and (of course) the right lighting. We didn’t have any clouds today so the problem to be solved is how to divide up the sky to avoid the blank areas.

A few months ago Adobe unveiled their “sky replacement filter.” Not happy with the sky in your image? Adobe can help you replace that bland sky with something dramatic. You have multiple choices of Adobe clouds or maybe a cloud formation you photographed. The technology is very sophisticated and it works.

This doesn’t bother me too much, because in the early days of photography, blue sensitive emulsions required two negatives for a photograph. The blue sky exposure would underexpose the land part of the photograph and the correct land exposure would overexpose the skies. Then, the two negatives would be printed on the same piece of paper separately to get a proper exposure for the scene. Sometimes photographers would use the same clouds in multiple images. Photographers even traded (or sold) good sky negatives to other photographers. It’s a photographic tradition updated to the twenty first century.

Next week, I’ll ruminate on another recently announced technological wonder for Photoshop

741 - Getting "The Shot" - First Published 10/4/2015

Observation and dedication to "getting the shot" can create its own problems. Many times during the most recent photo safari (and no doubt on other photo safaris) I have focused in on a particular composition. I have the final picture in mind and the only thing I need to do is to get to the spot where the vision is realized. After moving, climbing, jumping, balancing, twisting and turning, setting three different lengths on the tripod I make the photograph. Victory is mine! The photograph is as wonderful as I thought. Then I look at where I am. Then I think, "How did I get up here?" and more importantly, "How do I get down safely from this perch?" After pondering these things, I ask one more important question: "Are there any other good photographs I can make before I get down?"

740 - Eleven years blogging

Ah, so begins another year of blogging. Well, almost. The actual anniversary date is January 15, but isn’t it always a bit more fun to celebrate before rather than later?

I would like to thank all of you for stopping by to see the images and read the few words posted here twice a week. Your support through readership is truly appreciated. My hope is to continue blogging to bring new (and good older) thoughts and photographs to help you along your creative journey. When I started this blog I had no idea what would happen. Starting the eleventh year I think I can say now my Creative Journey has no destination or end point, only waypoints. I am happy you are with me.

As photographic artists we are all on the same Journey. Those that started ahead of us are inspiring; those traveling with us are good companions and those that started after us we can help find the way. I hope you find these postcards a help on your own Journey.

739 - Meditation on Marriage First published 8/6/2017

This photograph was made in Wyoming in September 1995. It was the only photograph made in this particular location because the filed 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.

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.

It was a title that was not logically thought out, but an emotional reaction to an image on my camera’s ground glass. I made the

738 - Distance and Scale

The first thing I found out about photographing in the Palouse is the distance and scale of the place. These two aspects of the place are at odds with one another. The distance means a telephoto lens is required to fill the frame. But using the telephoto eliminates the vastness of the Palouse. The answer is creating panoramic photographs with a telephoto lens. These lenses suit panoramic images well because they do not have the distortion at the edges you will find in wide angle lenses.

I never got around to posting this little bit of knowledge when I was on safari because I came to this conclusion early on during the safari and worked this bit of knowledge throughout the trip. The image above is one of the panoramic photographs I made during the trip. If you click on over to my website this month’s Journal has a group of panoramic photographs I made on the Palouse. Panoramic photographs of the Snake River Canyon will be included in the February Journal.

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Don’t get excited because I jumped from blog number 719 to 738. All this year’s photo safari blogs were not numbered. I changed the number so TypePad and I agree on the number of articles posted.