Postcards from the Creative Journey

713 - The Fifty Project – Much Later – First posted 9/15/2013

I went back through the Fifty Project as part of the reformatting of my web site. (What? You haven’t seen the new redesign? Click on over to my home page and take a look. I’ll wait right here while you check it out.) I had a birthday a couple of weeks ago and I remembered considered doing a “Sixty” Project to celebrate that milestone. After careful consideration, I figured that wouldn’t be the best idea.

The Fifty Project was a watershed project because it pushed me into the (then) new world of digital presentation. It was the foundation for all the web and folio projects since. It was the end of the era of the individual print. I was not ready to commit completely to the folio as a final product, so “Fifty” was a compilation of “greatest hits” in an exploratory presentation.

A greatest hits compilation at Sixty would be completely different because I really don’t deal in single image art any more. I still (two years later) don’t even know how to deal with the concept of “greatest hits” in terms of folios, so I had to let it pass. Maybe by the time I do my “Fifty Years of Photography” project, (with apologies to all Brett Weston fans) I will have figured out how to share the best of my folios – or maybe whatever medium I will be using in the future.

---

This post was nine years ago. Now it’s time to start my “Fifty Years of Photography” book so I can join the club. Go ahead and google Fifty Years of Photography and see how many results you get. After a lot of thought and discussion with photo buddy Brooks Jensen, I decided that the best way to get this milestone exhibit out into the world was to create a series of PDF publications (just as I have on my web site) over the next year or two with each PDF covering one of the five decades. I’ll let you know when this project is going to start.

712 The Devil in the Details

Some folks have taken the efficiency of digital editing and turned it on its head. Originally designed to make photographic editing quick, effective and incredibly precise, some are using digital editing to postpone completion of images. I have seen explanations of digital editing techniques used on one digital file going through multiple processing steps with mind numbing details and sweating out the details at the pixel level. Just because photoshop has a multiplicity of editing options and tools does not mean that every one should be used on every image. 

Why do people take so much time working with something that was created to make life easy?

Viewers can’t see the details at the pixel level, much less care about the time and effort spent in making the image “just so.” The only people that will know about it are people the photographer tells about it. Maybe they will care about the technical details in kind of a technical one-upmanship way.

The Devil in the details wants you to stick with that image and make invisible (to the viewer) changes to keep you from finishing and moving on to the next image. Fight the temptation, finish the image and move on.

711 Okanagan Forest, WA 2009 First Published 01/24/2010

We had just crested Forest Road 37 near Mt. Baldy and had finished making some panoramic photographs. It was a typical forest road; dirt, gravel and a thousand foot drop off without a guard rail. We were so busy looking forward (and trying not to fall off the edge) we didn’t look back until we had finished with the panoramic photographs.

The old photographer’s rule “If you see a good scene in front of you, there is probably a good scene behind you,” was proved true again.

710 “There Is No Pride In Learning Craft These Days”

Sometimes I hear this from my cohort of photographers that grew up with analog controls, film and darkroom processing. As a fellow grumpy old man I understand those looking askance at the young whippersnappers. I think us old fogies just might be missing the mark.

Craft in photography (whatever photography is, these days) has been transformed and our reliance on craft has changed. We don’t have to learn a lot of craft because we can rely on technology to do these tasks “automagically.” If your photographic history began with the digital age you probably don't know about “sunny 16,” hyperfocal distance, reciprocity, pushed and pulled development. That's OK. I'm still trying to understand why bokeh is so important. 

Analog craft has been superseded by digital accuracy. If our digital camera says the perfect exposure is f/5.9 at 1/173 of a second then, our digital camera with electronic shutter will give us that exact (and perfect) exposure for the scene. We are not locked in to f/6.3 and 1/250 and hope we can fiddle with the development to make our image “come out.”

That part of craft has been thoroughly updated. Creating photographic artifacts still requires craft, but the skills are far, far different than those of us that grew up in the analog world. The craft requirement is still there, but it’s just very different.

The essential element, that is creating compelling content is still there no matter what type of photographic equipment you have. 

709 Not Wanting to Leave. First Published 11/4/2012

Have you ever made a photograph so good that even after you make your exposure, you hang around for a few more minutes just looking at the image on the view screen (or ground glass) because it’s so beautiful? A photograph so good you go ahead and make a few more exposures because you love the image that much. Then you go back and check the corners and edges to make sure everything is perfect. And make a few more exposures? And then you make a few more bracketed exposures just because you want to make sure that the exposure is dead solid perfect. A photograph so good you make up excuses not to leave the spot because you know there is absolutely no way the next photograph will be better than the one you just made?

Me neither.

Then you move on to the next photograph. And you don’t want to pick up the camera again because you know the next photograph will never, ever, ever be as good as the last one. So it becomes a real chore to make that next photograph. But, you go out and make that next photo anyway. 

Then you get home and look at the files and wonder why you have so many exposures of the same really quite ordinary photograph.

Never happened to me either.

708 Lessons Learned: Photo Safari XXXIV

After just about all the Photo Safaris are complete, I publish a list of Lessons Learned so you might learn from my mistakes. Here are the things worth remembering when you head out into the world on your own photographic Safari.

1. Bring your computer glasses. Thumbnail photos on the Chromebook are not truly thumbnails but more pinky fingernail size. They are really tough to see and they only show the middle of the photograph. Yes, the computer glasses and the back-up glasses do take up some room, but if your stock and trade is vision, you should have the right glasses for each application. Oh, and remember just having a packing list does not insure you will actually get the items on your list into the suitcase.
2. Practice your computer skills. Make sure your chromebook is in great shape. While I was practicing, my display died. Learning the display was non-function BEFORE I left was the reason I started practicing. Not having a computer on a photo safari would have been a throw back to the days of analog photography's "wait and see what develops" when you get home. Luckily, I was able to borrow a chromebook to use on safari. It was not the same as my chromebook, but it was functional. Although, I have to admit the whole Google account and cloud based services were really useful in this case.
3. Computer software changes annually. I have taken computers with me on at least eight photo safaris. Not once have I used the same software and methodology two years in a row. The Software continues to improve. This year I can do exactly what I want to do with LightRoom for the chromebook. Not as good as the desktop version, but very, very nice if all you are going to do is post images to your blog.
4. With all this, I have to relearn how to process photos for this trip. The learning starts with how to get the images off the SD card and into the computer. Having a ton of adapter cables is a big help.
5. The wonderfulness of adobe products depend on a fast internet connection and computer processor. If I was doing this in a big city with a great internet, I could be really effective. But where I photograph, there is not a lot of good internet service. It’s a struggle to get anything done with adobe software on low capacity internet connections.
6. So, everything I said before about Adobe is rendered moot. After day 4 it turns out I can get by with using the photo editors included in the Chrome operating system because all I want to do is post photos to my blog.
7. “It’s so surprising when something works well.” -Brooks Jensen on the travails of transmitting a podcast to his office.
8. Cup O’Noodles still suck and nostalgia is overrated. Good food on the road (even if for snacks) is not a luxury.
9. Each photo safari will contain something you bring along by accident and turns out to be the best thing since sliced bread (really cold weather clothing) and something you think is absolutely necessary that is never used (travel tripod and water bottle attachment for LowePro bag).
10. Always leave town in the morning with a full tank of gas. It’s a long way between towns and they still have “60 miles to next gas” signs on country roads. A full tank of gas is a great security blanket. Running out of gas in a spot where you have “zero bars” is not a good thing.

    ---

    The photograph above is just about the last subject we photographed on this year's safari. I guess I could wax poetic about how I remembered the luminance of the moon and guessed at the exposure and lens selection and all that, but you know, I'm not Ansel Adams and this is not Hernandez, New Mexico.  It's south of Spokane and we just pulled off the interstate, rolled down the windows and let my Panasonic G85 do the rest. Turned out pretty good, I'd say. 

 

707 More on Vocation and Avocation First Published on 04/21/2013

One of my job functions is Project Management. Project Managers are really big on methodology as a way of getting things done on time and within budget. Our lives revolve around completing a series of tasks. It has become such a way of life that I do photographic projects the same way I do projects at work. As professionals, we behave a certain way to achieve success. Sometimes, we chose not to employ these same successful methods in pursuit of our hobby goals. Isn’t that an odd thing? It seems that when we leave work we leave the smarts we use there at the office and don’t employ them (if we can) when we photograph.

Determining a project’s end needs to be the first thing you think about in a project. The first thing to be done is to decide the method of display, distribution, in essence how you plan to share your vision with the rest of the world is the most important thing you can do for your project. If you don’t know what the end of the project will be, then how do you know when you get there? Without a defined ending, the project will tend to wander and will likely not be finished.

I may have touched on this topic before (with over 200 posts (Well, now it's over 700 posts), it’s now a challenge to not repeat myself) but the discipline of creating a project for your artistic projects makes it more likely your project will be finished. Deadlines are wonderful, especially if your deadlines are for a juried exhibition. That’s one way to force you to complete your work. I find the combination of defining the project’s conclusion as well as a definite deadline is one way to get a photographic project completed.

706 All Your Eggs in One Basket

I have noticed the recent change in my website presentation has made a difference in the number of people visiting the site. A big internet thank you for visiting and download my Journal Publication. I think the reason for the increase is the variety of images I have included in the publication. Up until this year, the projects have been restricted to a single topic. The big risk with that is you won’t like the single topic and won’t look at the work, or even worse, forget to return for next month’s update. With a variety of work shown in each Journal, there’s a better chance you will come back. You have come back. Thanks again for stopping by.

Don't forget to click that link at the top of the blog and go to my website to see what's new in the month of November. 

705 Getting in the Photographic Groove First Published 05/06/2012

It bears repeating. The fewer technical decisions you have to make, the more energy you can put into making the photograph. The question has been formed by trying to separate the “artistic” and “technical” parts of making a photograph. There are no pure aspects to making a photograph, but the technical and artistic aspects of creating art are deeply intertwined to the extent that you cannot separate the two aspects of creating a photograph.

To my way of thinking, the technical portion of photography (which reduces to manipulation of camera controls) needs to become a reflexive behavior. This allows the photographer to “surrender to the moment” and react intuitively and instinctively to the subject being photographed. To surrender to the moment is that wonderful experience where the photographer is completely immersed in the photographic experience and the camera operates smoothly and flawlessly as an extension of the photographer.

This experience is common to more than photographers. Musicians are in the groove when their instruments seem to play themselves. Athletes are in the zone when the entire game around them appears to be in slow motion. As a photographer you’ve been there when you finish for the day and look at the images you made and say, “Wow, I that’s great. I don’t remember making that image.”

704 How to Use the Hidden Treasure

I just discovered over 100 film negatives from Alkabo, North Dakota. These were made before I started the Sense of the Seasons project. These film negatives were in the 645 format and I never bothered to seek them out when I was creating the Sense of the Seasons Project. (Sense of the Seasons is a four folio project on my web site. You'll have to scroll down most of the way to the bottom to see the folios.) Now, what am I supposed to do with all these old negatives that could have been used in an already completed project?

It comes back to the question that haunts those of us that work projects to completion. When is a project truly finished, or can a project be finished? Some of my projects have been versioned several times (web presentation, folios of prints and books) and each time I thought they were finished. Now, I have uncovered new, very good negatives that are too good to be gathering dust in a three ring binder.

It’s just a question of how I plan to use them.

---

This image is one of the 645 film negatives from the first trip to the Alkabo School. The negative was digitized by using an LED light source and my Panasonic G85 camera fitted with a macro lens. The RAW file was perfected using the Negative Lab Pro plug in for LightRoom Classic and final image adjustments were also made in LightRoom Classic.

703 Solving The Photographic Problem, First Published 03/08/2015

 

I have the mind of an engineer, so no matter what experience comes to me in life, I will tend to attempt to solve the problem in an engineering manner. If I have to do something photographic, I will organize the activity as a project manager would. That’s my lot in life. It’s just who I am.

Each photograph is a problem to be solved. What do I want the audience to feel about what I am about to photograph? What vision do I want to share? What do I have to do to make that statement? What technical hurdles need to be surmounted to make an image that perfectly expresses my vision? Each photograph is an individual problem and demands a solution crafted to achieve the desired result. It requires the experience and skill of the photographer to approach each photograph with new eyes and a new approach to solving the problem.

702 Quality versus Quantity

While pondering two earlier posts (699 and 700) I felt it necessary to address the titular issue. When I started photography it was black and white film. We had to develop film and print negatives. It took time and commitment to craft to do this process. When I evolved from 35mm film to large format sheet film, the process slowed down even more. With the view camera it took time to compose the image (after unpacking the camera and setting it up!), time to focus and then a decision on whether or not to spend the dollar on the film for the composition. There was a lot of editing, selecting and effort even before the negative was exposed. As a result, the output was numerically small, the hope being there were a high percentage of “hits” with each negative.

In moving to digital, the cost of image making is essentially zero. The time to process the image to a viewable image is orders of magnitude quicker. Throughput is much, much greater and this has a wonderful aspect to it.

That wonderful aspect is the number of failures dramatically increases. You only learn when you make mistakes and with digital photography you can make more mistakes faster and thus you can learn from your mistakes almost immediately after you make the error. You can take more chances on compositions, try more variations and experiment with subject matter selection with almost no financial consequences.

I have talked to many photographers whose careers have spanned both analog and digital modes of photography. Just about everyone agrees it was great to learn photography in the analog age and absolutely wonderful when digital photography came along and made everything we learned really, really easy.