Postcards from the Creative Journey

I Hate It When That Happens

Verisimilitude. Now you know.

More than a few years ago I created an entire body of work by combining multiple images to create a fantasy world. The project was called “The Labyrinth.” What made this project so successful is I was able to make the photographs “believably unbelievable.” It took me a long time to be able to come up with that phrase to describe what I learned to do in photoshop. What peeves me now is that I found a perfectly good word that describes what I worked to achieve. The word is verisimilitude. Verisimilitude is the illusion of reality: a thing that is not real, but which seems realistic. That is exactly what the Labyrinth photographs were.

I think it is an important word, because so much of photography, digital imaging and especially motion pictures employ verisimilitude. As photographers, we are more aware of this than civilians, so much so, that I routinely think that any image I see is probably not a single unretouched photograph.

Maybe I didn’t get too photographic today, but at least I have one more wonderful word to use in my daily conversation.

The Center of the Universe

Wallace Idaho, Center of the Universe.

A while back I said I would blog about this, so now is the time...

Wallace, Idaho is the center of the Universe. That’s a fact. It’s stamped on a manhole cover in the middle of Downtown Wallace. Apparently the discovery of Wallace being the center of the Universe happened during a visit by the EPA to some of the abandoned mines surrounding the town. The EPA claimed the sites were polluted. The town folks said that was not the case. The EPA said unless the town folks could prove the abandoned mines were not polluted, the EPA declared the mines toxic waste sites. The town folks said that according to that logic, Wallace, Idaho was the center of the Universe unless the EPA could prove it wasn’t. Wallace, Idaho is the Center of the Universe. This fact is celebrated annually by the good citizens of Wallace on the third Saturday of September.

The Secret Life of Books

A Boy's Song - From Prairie Schools

During this summer’s photo safari to Yosemite National Park, Brooks Jensen and I were discussing whether the Masters of West Coast Photography had made any memorable photographs of Lake Tenaya. On a recent trip to Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Library I spent some time with their photographic book collection looking for an Edward Weston photograph of Tenaya Lake. I found the photograph as well as an Ansel Adams photograph of Weston photographing at Tenaya Lake in the Aperture book, “The Flame of Recognition.” 

 

Victory is Mine - I found the pictures I was searching for.

Walking out of the Library this thought struck me. The book I held in 2015 was the same book I read and re-read in 1972. That copy of “The Flame of Recognition” was the exact same book that inspired me to consider photography as an art. So much of our current digital life is ephemeral and disposable and the catalyst that began my life-long affair with photography was still on the library shelf. Has this slim volume ever inspired another person to make a life-long commitment to photography? I don’t know, but I bet that somehow that little book does.

Another Type of Shot

Doorway, Sun Yat-sen Center, Vancouver BC

During one of our Grand Photo Safaris, Brooks Jensen and I wound up in beautiful city of Vancouver, BC. Brooks suggested the Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden would be an interesting spot to photograph. We navigated our way through Vancouver to the Garden, parked the pick-up truck filled with camping gear, loaded up our cameras and gear and found our way to the Garden. We found the traditional Chinese garden an oasis of beauty walled off from the hustle and bustle of a big city. We photographed there for several hours. When we were ready to leave we loaded up our gear and tried to find our way back to the truck. Try is the essential word here, because we got turned around and wound up walking into what must have been Vancouver’s premier outdoor heroin market. With lots of expensive camera gear hanging off our bodies we felt like we were a ready source of funds for needy addicts, but happily (for us) they were more interested in scoring their fix. We eventually made our way back to the truck without incident and continued the safari. 

Taking the Shot Is Important

Tranquility (#11), at Waterville, Ireland

On our twentieth wedding anniversary my wife and I went to Ireland. I was able to take both a camera and golf clubs with me on this trip. A memorable stop was Waterville, in County Kerry. I was able to stand on the seventeenth tee (I think) and make a series of photographs. The photo consists of three separate film (that’s how long ago it was) exposures. Prior to the trip, I read about how photoshop could create a panoramic photograph from several separate images.

Generally, the photographic rule is to capture the image even if you don’t quite know what you are going to do with it, or you know what you want to do but don’t yet know how to do it.  You will eventually figure out what to do with it because either you get better, the technology gets better or some combination of the two. So here it is.

The other memorable shot of that afternoon was made on a 3 par. The wind was gusting and there was no consistency in its speed or direction. I was indecisive about what club to use. I asked the caddy for advice. In a wonderful Irish brogue, his reply was “hit yer 5 iron and hope.” I do not remember the outcome of that shot, but I do remember the advice. It seems to be applicable to both photography and golf.