Postcards from the Creative Journey

666 The Future Is Software

I guess my current camera is obsolete because it is not the latest model in the product line. I don’t worry about that too much because I used a view camera for thirty some years and technologically speaking that camera was obsolete about a century ago. I think there are very few opportunities for affordable upgrades to cameras from this point on. Yes, camera manufacturers can make better sensors, better electronics and better lenses, but it cannot be done at a price most people can afford.

So where does improvement come? As the title of post says, the future is software. It takes a major investment to create a physical object. A company needs lots of people, facilities, raw materials and a means of distributing physical products. This takes lots of time and money. To upgrade software, all that is needed is a computer and a lot of imagination. It is much more economical (and profitable, I might add) to make software work better than it is to introduce a new camera.

The folks at Adobe figured this out a long time ago.

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An old panoramic image from the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument.

665 A Plethora of Prodigies – First published 03/25/2012

Are prodigies more plentiful these days or have our standards for what constitutes a prodigy been lowered? I could consider the possibility that the number of people younger than I am is definitely getting larger by the day, but I chose to ignore that for the moment. Age does not seem to be as much an issue to me as maturity.

Shouldn’t you attain a certain level of maturity before your art goes beyond being attached to the refrigerator with a magnet? So much of photography today relies on computer skills and a certain facility with those skills can come soon after one starts. So does the ability to churn out computer generated art.

The mismatch I see is that the craft comes quickly while the maturity to create meaningful art comes in its own time. Sometimes the gap between art and craft doesn’t seem to stop the overconfident from sharing their creations with the rest of the world.

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Remember Melvin from last week? Here's another picture from the same session. The lady on the right is Susie. She took us over to Melvin and introduced us to him.  It seemed reasonable to make a double portrait of them to commemorate the occasion.

664 Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.

Landscape Photography is random. Most of us that travel to the landscape to photograph may have all the plans and contingencies in place, but upon arrival the weather doesn’t want to cooperate. Sometimes you are the windshield, sometimes you are the bug.

Sometimes you just do what you have to do to make photographs. And hope the weather forecast doesn’t really mean it will be pouring rain all day wherever you choose to go.

When it rains, you have to be content with photographing through the open window of the car if you can position the car so the rain doesn’t blow in through the windows.

663- Every Picture Has A Story First Published 3/29/2015

I don’t make many portraits so portraits are special. We spent an afternoon photographing Melvin’s machine shop while Melvin, Kenny and the sheep shearer (and his sheep dog) took care of shearing Melvin’s sheep. When we accomplished our photographic mission for the day, it came time to take our leave of Melvin’s farm. Just before we left, the shearing was completed. The three men stood by the shed and were resting from a day’s work. Melvin said that without the dog, it would have taken three more men to herd the sheep to the shearer. It was at that point I asked the men if I could make their photograph. Fatigue played a role in their not wanting to move and being able to sit still for a long exposure.

After I put my camera gear away, I came back to shake hands with Melvin and wish him well. He stuck out a huge mitt of hand and I gave him my best firm grip, double pump, look ‘em in the eye handshake. I have shaken hands many times, but this was the most memorable in my life. Melvin’s hand was huge, strong, and covered with lanolin from a day’s handling of wool. The combination of a muscular hand hard and strong from a life time of farm work made incredibly soft by the lanolin was a tactile experience that transcended an afternoon of photography.

A postcard is a picture and a story. ”Postcards from a Creative Journey” should be a picture and a story about the picture. It’s taken me a couple of years to figure that out and I think having more posts like this will be a lot more fun. Photographers are more enthusiastic and interesting when talking about their photographs than talking about photography. Going forward I will be posting more photographs and stories than ruminations on photography.

 

662 Too Good to Throw Away

We were amazed by the collection of items leaning against the barn and we stopped to photograph. An older lady came out of the nearby house and came over to us. We said hello and she began to speak.

“Floyd, rest his soul, was cleaning out the barn one spring a few years back and he just leaned a few old things up against the barn because he didn’t know what to do with them. He said they were too good to throw away but not good enough to be used again.”

She continued, “Then the neighbors pulled some old junk out of their barns and brought it over, then some animal skulls just appeared, and some more tools and Lord knows what else. Floyd just made sure everything had its own spot on the side of the barn.”

She wiped her hands on her apron and said, “Well, and then city people, like you boys, started coming by and taking snapshots. I don’t know why you would want to take some photos of old junk, but I know Floyd would have loved to see what’s happened to our old barn.”

We thanked her for permission to photograph the barn and she went back inside.

661 Going Off For A Bit Of A Wander First Published 3/05/2017

Nearing the end of our day driving through British Columbia with no particular route or agenda in mind, we came upon a Bed and Breakfast that was the only place around for miles. Happily they had vacancies and we settled in for the evening. The next morning we had a discussion over breakfast with a couple from Great Britain. We were relating our predilection for peripatetic photographic pass times to the enjoyment of our dining companions. Our breakfast companion looked at us and said that our annual photo safaris were “going off for a bit of a wander” in order to make our photographs. That phrase stuck with me because it pretty much described our methodology of photography until we discovered that destination location photography was much more productive.

Later that morning we left the Bed and Breakfast. We wandered past a small town and spied a dirt road that followed a creek. We continued our wander and a few miles up the road we found this nice spot to photograph.

 

660 If You Have Never Seen it Before…

It’s like finding something brand new. I like finding authors and musicians after they have established their careers. That way, if I like them, I don’t have to wait for them to create their work. I guess it’s the upside of being a late adopter. For instance, I was late to the Bosch series of murder mysteries, the Jack Reacher and Mitch Rapp novels to name a few. Growing up in the 60’s I favored music of the British Invasion, psychedelia and Motown.  More than a few years ago I discovered jazz and really liked it. Jazz has been there for a long time waiting for my discovery. I'm certainly glad I found it. 

That’s why I republish blog posts on Thursdays. If you’re new to this blog, you get something new to you twice a week.

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The Sierra Nevada Mountains from the Alabama Hills. 

659 - The Best Time for an Idea First Published 7/17/2011

"The older you get, the harder it is to be creative without large swathes of peace, quiet and solitude to sustain you. Or maybe that's just me?" This question was posed by Hugh McLeod (of “How to be Creative” fame) on his blog a few years back. I have always held this close to my heart because it is just as important for me not to work as it is to work. The mind needs its' time to process the complex thoughts and influences that make great ideas. Quiet times and solitary places are perfect for that.

Relaxation and time “away from it all” are truly important to let all the turbulent things in life to settle out and clarify what really is important. This is especially true in the creative realm. In the quiet times the ideas that have been incubating in your subconscious will come to the surface because they don’t have to fight through all the niff naff and petty annoyances that are part of our daily life.

Inspirations or solutions come to me early in the morning, often as I am waking up. Ideas awaken when I do. It’s a refreshing way to start the day, with a good idea for a project, an approach to a problem to be solved, or a great idea for a photograph. When is your best time for a new idea?

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Ah, the vagaries of the digital world. The original file of the photo for this blog post (in its 500 pixel at 72dpi glory) is missing. As part of my throwback Thursday blog post, I seek out the original file and re-process it for modern sensibilities (bigger images for sharper monitors). I can't find the original file anywhere. You will have to accept in its place another hotel photograph. This hotel lobby is in Cody, Wyoming. There's a certain sense of style and ambiance you find in the American West, and this hotel lobby has it.