Postcards from the Creative Journey

991 It’s Now or Never. Or Is It? First Published 11/25/2012

When photographing the landscape you always have a decision on whether or not you want to make a photograph. If the choice is to make something that’s just OK, or pass it by because it’s not perfect, choose making the photograph. The worst that can happen is that you have a passable photograph and maybe “wasted” some bytes on your card. If you don’t like what you see later, you can delete the file and no one will be the wiser. It is not like the olden days where you had a real investment in the cost of each piece of film and your time to develop the film and process the prints.

Consider what happens when your return to the very same spot for the last time and the situation is even less favorable that it was previously? All you have left is the memory of a lost opportunity. While memories are wonderful, you are a photographer. When you go out to photograph there is some expectation that you will return with photographs.

990 Learning Aesthetics

“We have reached a point where photography is so sophisticated, we separate the instruction on camera operation, software, and photography. We worry so much about hardware and software we have little time left for the aesthetics of photography.”

This is from a blog post in 2020. When I was creating the October edition of the Journal this last paragraph raised (at the time) an unspoken question. The question is this; “How are we getting our aesthetic grounding in photography?” Today’s beginning photographers rely on social media and forums where images get thumbs up or thumbs down or a number of stars. There is little room for an in-depth evaluation and critique of the image, only an anonymous quantitative evaluation by people whose sole qualification to pass judgement on an images is a log on id and password.

In the past, aesthetic education was gained by studying the images made by the Masters. We looked at and pored over the images that have passed the test of time and have continued to inspire and educate aspiring photographers for decades. Now, we look for a thumbs up and sweep right (or left) and what have we learned from this poor excuse for education?

989 It’s All About the Gear, Right? First Published 10/26/2014

The type of person that is totally focused with cameras, lenses, gear, accessories and all other things we lump together as “hardware” is not likely the type of person to be aesthetically oriented. Gearheads are gearheads no matter the pass time. You know these people. Their passion is photographic gear, golf clubs, power tools and just about and any other tool of the trade. The photographic gearhead’s quest is to acquire the ultimate whatsit, or the dream about how good they will be with the “right” gear. Once the hardware is acquired and the software is mastered, their interest usually dies because it’s at that point the gearhead realizes the acquisition of the proper gear means that they have purchased some equipment and maybe have learned to use it.

The artist will take the tools and learn to say something with them. The tools are the means to give life to the artists’ thoughts, feelings and observations. The Gearhead views the tools as an end. The artist sees the tools as a beginning.

988 A Question Of Nudity

Early in my photographic career I created many nude photographs. In assembling images for the More Memories than Dreams Project I am conflicted about what to do with these images. There is a super abundance of nudity on the internet, most of which fails on an artistic level while overachieving on a prurient level.

I think it's rather interesting that we (or maybe it’s just me) don't see very many nudes these days. I don't know if that's a reaction to the me-too movement or the fact that internet porn has become so common that artistic nudes just seem like a product of yesteryear. In comparison to what is found on the web today, my nude images might be considered quaint, dated and viewed with the same amusement my generation had when viewing “French Postcards” from our grandparents’ generation.

987 That’s Not a Digital Print First Published 12/7/2014

At the end of a presentation on photography, I was sharing some of my projects with fellow photographers. One of them picked up a platinum print and asked what type of software I used to get the brush stroke border around the picture. That question kind of set me back, but I answered the brush strokes were made by a brush.

That exchange got me to thinking that we are now sharing the photographic world with an ever growing number of photographers that have no experience with anything other than digital capture and output. It is as if the first one hundred and fifty years of photographic processes no longer exist. Our photographic world is so far down the digital output path that wet darkroom prints (and especially alternative process prints) are not even recognized by most photographers.

986 Let’s Make Things More Complicated!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been regaling you with my approach to assembling images for an exhibition next year. On this year’s Photo Safari, Brooks and I spent a day photographing in Portland’s Japanese Garden. I now have another hundred or so images that could possibly fit in with the existing Harmony Project. Not only will I get to use the existing images, I created more images that might be integrated into the existing project. It seems the project has been regressing in grand fashion. Well, I would like to think of it as a tactical retreat rather than being knocked back.

I don’t think Bob is my uncle any longer.

985 Eyesight and Vision First Published 5/22/2011

My Wife and I went to a local “under the stars” band concert sponsored by our city’s arts commission. The featured music was provided by a “big band.” This style of music was popular in the 1930’s and 1940’s. As one might expect, the practitioners of this musical style are usually more “mature” than most bands. The audience is even older. During the show, I was struck by a certain discord among the tones. It seemed as if the entire orchestra was out of tune, but consistently out of tune. Then it struck me. Maybe the collective “hearing” of the band was declining due to age. This hearing loss was affecting their art. I began to ponder this topic.

When is the eventual loss of eyesight that comes with age going to affect my art? I was told Chris Burkett is concerned about how aging will affect his ability to evaluate his famously precise high resolution printing. I gave up my view cameras a few years ago. The 5x7 was first to go. I still have the 4x5, fewer film holders and fewer lenses. The Zone VI standard tripod (all fifteen pounds of it) is also gone. The days of hop scotching across the tops of rocks in remote streams with a backpack full of view camera gear and the big tripod are gone. Long afternoons in the darkroom rocking print trays are now a memory. Well, almost. (My darkroom has been converted into a brewery, so it hasn’t been a total loss.)

Now it’s a sling bag, a carbon fiber composite tripod, a digital camera with a zoom lens and good photo printer. The equipment and technology are extending my ability to work in the field. I can continue to create art for quite a while longer. Maybe it will take a bit longer, but eventually age will catch up with me.

It’s cruel. It takes decades to sharpen your vision and then your eyesight gets blurry.

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Don't forget there is a new issue of The Lipka Journal at my web site. Please click the link at the top of the page, visit my website and download the latest Journal. 

984 Nothing Should Go To Waste

If you’ve been reading the blog (and I hope you do) please go back and look at the last two Sunday posts where I am in a quandary about designing a new exhibition. In creating a new look at an existing project I developed three new additional projects in an attempt to expand the original project. As you read last week (or maybe a few minutes ago) I am going to use the original concept and images and not create a new project.

What I did discover was two additional image suites I will use in The Lipka Journal. The extra work, while not usable in one format is perfect as a project for the Journal. This photograph and a few of its friends were published in the November Journal.

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As long as I'm discussing Journals, there is a new issue of The Lipka Journal at my web site. Please click the link at the top of the page, visit my website and download the latest Journal. 

983 127 - What Do You See? First Published 4/15/2012

What is in front of my camera and what I see through my camera are two different things. I don’t see scenery. I see a photograph composed of what is in front of the camera. Those of us that began photographing when the Zone System and previsualization were the holy gospel of fine art photography could not imagine any other way to photograph. When I duck under the dark cloth and inspect the ground glass of my view camera I do not see color, but black and white. It is truly an odd experience, but under the dark cloth I do not see color. Tones are the key element on the ground glass.

Proving that old ways die hard, an important feature of my digital camera is an articulating LCD viewscreen. This allows me to avoid squinting through a teeny tiny viewfinder to compose my images. My latest camera, the Lumix GH2, has a large articulating screen and I think it’s a wonderful way to compose an image. I find it odd that I do not have this learned behavior when photographing with my digital camera. I think there is something magical about the dark cloth that grants me the ability to see black and white in a color world.

Maybe some future iPad will have a sharp, high resolution camera lens. It would be great to have a large LCD screen about the size of a view camera with an app that displays the image upside down and backwards! We can have the best of both worlds; composing images on a large high resolution screen and making a digital file to perfect.

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On that last paragraph...I've seen hot shoe adapters that can hold an iPad mini that is plugged into a digital camera. It's used on movies. Wow. A digital camera with a 5x7 external viewer. Sometimes, dreams do come true...

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Besides being a Throwback Thursday, it's the first of December and my web site has been updated with the December edition of The Lipka Journal. Click that link at the top of the page, and download the latest edition.

Thanks.