Postcards from the Creative Journey

527 Return to the Days of Yesteryear (Part I)

 

While on vacation, I took my digital camera and an iPad mini. I do love my iPad mini, but I don’t think of it as much more than a media consumption device because the model I received as a gift does not have a lot of on board memory. I’ve tried in the past to work with Lightroom CC on the mini, but that has fallen short because of the small memory and the quality of the internet connection. If I am out on the road for any length of time, I will fill up my ipad with photos before it’s time to head home. Uploading just doesn’t seem to be a good fit for me, either, because a prime consideration for a desirable photographic location is to have no cell service at all. If I was in a large urban setting with great WiFi and a strong internet connection and more memory on my iPad mini Lightroom CC would be great. But, I am not normally in that situation and I cannot take advantage of the genius of Lightroom CC. Bummer.

There is a solution to my problem. It revolves around the purchase of new computing equipment that would come closer to matching my digital processing needs. In the old days, we could buy new cameras and lenses and rest assured that our darkroom equipment would be compatible (maybe with some minor modification). Today, we are more integrated and have the flexibility to process our images anywhere. We have to be ready for that. Right now, I’m not ready for that at all.

But, you know what? I’m not all that disappointed with this set of circumstances. Come on back next week and I’ll tell you why.

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Natural Chilean Soda. A photograph from the Carpenter Feed Store, from a long time ago. It's one of those old, rural stores that was stocked on the basis of, "if we don't have it, you don't need it." Our town grew up around it, but it still survives. When I made this photograph, I was still using my Wista Field 45 camera.

526 The True Source of the Problem

I’m a tech guy. Always have been and will continue to be one as long as I’m doing photography. I’m not one of those camera geeks that debates the relative merits of the smallest details of camera design, lives and dies by bokeh or tests the variations in camera stabilization, but technical photographic challenges have rarely been a problem. I’ve photographed with all formats of cameras, made silver prints of many sizes and pursued alternative printing methods for over a decade. But, this past week I had an almost insurmountable printing problem.

I’m started to make prints for my September exhibition, “After the Memories,” and ran into a huge problem. My new Epson 800 printer was making prints off center. Not millimeters, but three or four inches off center. I went berserk trying to figure out what was wrong with my process. I did lots of experiments trying to isolate the cause of the misalignment, making a lot of bad prints and using up a bunch of expensive Epson ink. I could not for the life of me pinpoint the cause of the problem. I was facing the specter of impending project failure.

I ran out of 13x19 paper and was reaching for the next big box of paper. It was at this point that I achieved enlightenment. I realized the exhibition prints were 17x22 and I had been trying to print them full size on 13x19 paper. As the character in Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

I guess I forgot that if you want to print on 17x22 paper you have to load 17x22 paper in the printer. I will have to remember that from now on.

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There are no problems with this manifestation of automotive perfection in the form of this DelaHaye Roadster exhibited at the North Carolina Museum of Art in 2016. The Rolling Sculpture exhibit showed their perfection is in the perfect melding of function and form. The NCMA allowed photography at this exhibit and my photographs are located here.

525 Breakfast Can Wait, The Light Won’t

Another reminder that photography is inconvenient. Sunrise happens early in the day. It’s amazing that I forgot that. I am much more inclined to photograph in the evening because I do have the option to sleep in, have a nice breakfast and generally approach the day in a leisurely manner. But, if you are a landscape photographer, you might need to be reminded the “golden hour” occurs both morning and night.

Even if you have to be up early, you don’t need to fire away blindly. Be ready to take advantage of the first opportunity and then be patient to see if there is another opportunity that you can use to your advantage. Amateurs take the first opportunity and are happy with it. If you’re good, you recognize that a first opportunity is just that and then wait to see if there is a second or third opportunity that follows. Remember, while everyone wants to get the sunrise picture, the old rule about turning 180 degrees to find another picture is a great rule to remember. Oh, and if you are still tired and only want to turn 90 degrees, the light will be really great in that direction, too.

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Early morning on the Danube. This is what happens when you’re late for breakfast. One needs to be up and looking for photographs, all the time.

524 Interpreting Photographs

I’ll admit it. I’ve gone to gallery shows, bypassed the words and gone straight to the photographs without reading the artists statement. The pictures didn’t really tell me what was going on with the artwork. After reading the words the exhibit started to make more sense.

Words are precise. Individuals can interpret what the image means to them in many different ways. Sometimes they will ascribe meanings to your photographs that are absolutely nowhere near what you originally set out to create. There are many classic optical illusions that make this point. Do you see a vase or two pretty women looking at each other or an animal that could be either a duck or a rabbit? When left to their own devices, your viewers may not see what you want them to see, or understand what you are doing.

This is why creating your artists statement helps in determining the success or failure of how well you communicate your message to your audience. Carefully chosen words tell the viewers what they need to know before they begin looking at your photographs. Misinterpretation is less likely if the introductory statements to projects are clearly written. Getting your viewers to read the statement before looking at your photographs is another problem. This is one problem I will have to solve for an upcoming exhibit; How to layout the exhibit so the audience will read my statement before they begin looking at photographs. This will be a challenge. 

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Automotive perfection is in the form of this Ruxton Model C exhibited at the North Carolina Museum of Art in 2016. The Rolling Sculpture exhibit showed their perfection is in the perfect melding of function and form. The NCMA allowed photography at this exhibit and my photographs from that exhibit are located here.

523 Photography on the Z axis. Part II

I am seeing more drone based landscape photographs and I wonder how long it will take before the elevated camera position offered by drones will become the new standard for landscape photographers. Are earth bound photographers now the next school of photography to be declared obsolete? Or will we continue as an eccentric group of earthbound photographers practicing a the newest alternative process?

Clearly new skills will be required to be a landscape photographer. We’ll need to learn how to fly drones and need to do “on the fly” editing (I like that pun) and be more adept on trying to maneuver the drone to the exact spot we need to make our photograph successful. We might even consider hiring a drone owner/pilot to make our cameras airborne so we might click the shutter with our own remote control device. Does this mean that we now have a dual credit on our photographs; "Photo by me, drone piloting by my neighbor?"  A friend was investigating regulations on where drone flying is permissible. The list of places drone flying was fairly extensive and most troubling were the restrictions for certain areas landscape photographers love. Technical and legal barriers have not been settled on where we can fly drones.

While drone flying may be new, the problem they present to photographers is one we have always faced when given the opportunity to exploit a new technology. That is how to keep our images from becoming trendy and gimmicky until we discover how to use the new technology to advance our art. It's important to discover how to get past the obvious use of the new technology to get to the expressive use of technology to help us tell the stories we want to tell. 

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Budapest, Hungary and the parliament building photographed from the Fisherman's Bastion. Elevation is a wonderful thing. Clearly, this photograph would have been better if made it with a drone mounted camera.