OLD BIRDS

NINE-0-NINE, ARCATA, 2006

I took this as part of a series one foggy morning six years ago. This is the plane that I got to fly in about twenty years ago - a flight of a lifetime.

This aircraft and a B-24 are at ACV through Friday morning. They are worth seeing.

MINUS 2.3 FOOT TIDE AT TRINIDAD THIS MORNING

A COUPLE OF EXPOSED CRITTERS NEAR GRANDMOTHER ROCK, TRINIDAD, 2012

Lisa and I went to Trinidad Beach to experience the very low tide this morning at seven. It was a treat to be able to walk out on to the beach farther then we ever had before. There were a lot of stranded critters on the sand and the rocks. I do not know if ones like the sun star above were stressed or not.

THE LAST OF THIS SERIES ON FERNBRIDGE (I THINK)

REFLECTIONS OF FERNBRIDGE, FERNBRIDGE, MAY 2012

I worked on this image several times. Each time that I do, I think that I am finished, but when I come back, as I did just a few minutes ago, I see more to do. I will confess that I thought I had it right a couple of days ago, and I printed a black and white variation of this photograph.

I will be taking a short break from this blog, and should post again come Sunday.

DEALING WITH FORM AND COLOR

HAVING FUN WITH FORM AND COLOR, FERNBRIDGE, MAY 2012

This particular image is one of those that needed a few days to simmer before I was willing to consider it as a part of this body of work (the actual print looks much better then this low-end jpg). I used the 17mm TS lens, and had the rise up all the way. I used "live view" with this shot (I almost always use live view with this lens). Live view helps me compose the shot, but the main reason for using it is that the I can magnify the image on the LCD for critical focusing. I also check the depth-of-field in the magnify mode, and by using my new poor-man's Hoodman.

I am not yet sure how this image conveys the essence of Fernbridge. Since it is an unnatural view that does not mimic the normal human vision, and I cannot come up with a description of how it affects me, I think then, that it  is a successful  visual statement.

CONTINUING ON A THEME

FEELING THE STRENGTH AND STAMINA, BUTTRESS DETAIL, FERNBRIDGE, MAY 2012

 

 

I am beginning to acquire some emotional sense of what it is that this structure is capable of evoking in my consciousness. Its mass gives it a presence, its form gives it beauty, and its design gives it grace. All of these elements work together creating aspects that tickle my senses and give to me a sense that defies my abilities as a writer. All I can do is attempt to interperet my feelings and preceptions via my visual medium with these photographs.

This leads me to the conclusion that, at least for now, I am incapable of creating a single image that fully conveys what I experience with this bridge. I think that to convey the message that I must consider this as a body of work.

The above image is a composite of three images. I used the 17mm TS lens at ASA 50.

STILL WORKING ON IT

THE BRIDGE OVER CALM WATERS, FERNBRIDGE, MAY 2012

This is another one of those images that will require some time to simmer on the back burner. It was challenging in that I took the shot right into the brightest part of the foggy sky. I wish for more detail in the clouds. This exposure was the darkest of the three (I normally shoot a bracket of three images - one at one stop under; another at the camera's recommended exposure, and one at one stop over exposed). With this type of sky, I find that the under exposed negative gives me the best sky detail, and that there is enough detail in the shadows that can be brought out. My buddy Hal taught me that!

FINDING THAT ESSENCE

BUTTRESS, FERNBRIDGE, MAY 2012

I still do not know if I am capturing the essence of the bridge. Perhaps "the essence" is to be found in the entire body of work. I think that there will be one image that "most effectively" captures the essence or soul of the bridge, but I wonder if it does take a body of work to more fully convey the many aspects and moods of the structure and of the place.

This photograph is a composite of multiple images that were combined into one, and then it was cropped. The initial panorama was vertical, and I decided that there was considerably more foreground than I liked to see, so I cropped about a  third off of the bottom.

EARLY MORNING PHOTOGRAPHY

FERNBRIDGE ESSENCE, 2012

I took this image this morning. I took quite a few more as well. I have not done a lot of work on it yet, and I am still allowing this  and the rest to simmer for awhile before I even think of printing any. I think I will share several others in the coming days.

The Redwood Camera Club chose the bridge as their annual project. I am working with a small group of photographers that is directing their energies and attention on discovering the essence of this structure. Hopefully, I am on task.

MORE MOODS, MEMORIES, AND MANIFESTATIONS

LAMY CHURCH IN EARTH TONES, November 2008

Manifestations of this church keep coming into my visual awareness. I am working on creating an image of this little church that somehow conveys something other than a record shot of a building. This church has a history, and within the greater history are many forgotten stories. I am sure that there were weddings, funerals, christenings, confessions, baptisms, sermons, songs and prayers in this now seemingly abandoned house of God.  Most of the memories of those events are now gone. Perhaps a few people are still around that can relate some of the stories, but by-and-large, the recollections of the happenings of the parishioners of the Lamy Church are all lost in time.

The last time I photographed the church there was some evidence that someone was attempting to maintain the building. I hope that they succeed.

MOODS AND EMOTIONS

GHOSTS TRAINS OF LAMY, 2010

Photography is all about light. That has been the rule since the beginning. Light is about mood, and that too, for me, has been the rule. I am affected by light in much of what I do. My vision as an artist is about form, mood, color, brightness and darkness, and the overall but unspoken emotions that a particular scene brings to my awareness. Or does my awareness bring the mood?

When I took this photograph, I was deeply connected to what I was seeing and feeling. I was drawn to the Lamy Station because it was close and handy to where I was staying. I was also drawn because of my love of trains, and by my habit of photographing older buildings and structures.

I brought my personal history along with me, and that coupled with what I was seeing allowed for me the opportunity to interpret the place, the lighting, the aesthetics, and the mood into compositions. It was not until the past few days that I was able to bring all those elements together in an image that I think conveys what I wish to say about that day and that place and about myself.

This process brings to me a sort of "full-circle" completion. Working with this image, I am drawn back in time and space Lamy, New Mexico on May 6, 2010. I then bring that connection into the present, and allow for some magic to occur.

I think this is what most artist do with their creations. I am sure that what I experience is completely different than what others see and feel, but I think that they do see, feel and react. If so I succeeded.

"I LIKE THOSE NICE BRIGHT COLORS"

THE GRAND DELUXE EXPRESS AT LAMY, 2007

I think I can humbly say that this is one of the prettiest photographs I have ever made. I think to really do it justice one must see an actual print, but this is not too bad.

I am spending a lot of time going back through older photographs from about 2006 through 2009. I occasionally find something worthwhile, but all-in-all, I discover few that I deem to be worth printing from that era. When I go back to look at my work of the early nineties (when I was at the height of my film photography skills), and look through my boxes of prints,  I do find images that I think are worthy of exhibiting.

I am realizing that there is a considerable gap in my work. That gap coincides with the fact that I pretty much quit serious still photography in the late nineties. From about 2000 through 2006 my creative energies were focused on video work, brewing beer, bicycling and on my career.

There was a gap of somewhere around seven or eight years in my photography. I did take photographs, but I did not practice my art. During that period of time my photographic skills atrophied much like the muscles of an athlete who quits training. I still had my talent, but my skills slowly became duller and duller. The images that I created throughout that time period did not have my old commitment behind them. I did not work on my photography, and it showed.

I bought a new digital camera in 2006. I still had not recommitted my self to still photography, but I did start testing my vision. Like an athelete recomencing a training plan, I started out slowly. My vision and my skills were rusty, and I had to learn the new technologies. I still had "my natural talents", but they could only carry me so far. Like my athelete, I did not yet have an aerobic base, and therefore I could not "run" very far before I became winded.

I sort of languished in a zone of non-commitment for a couple of years. I still did not have a training program, and I had not yet realized that I needed one. It took a couple of years for me to realize that I had to consciously direct my training program in photography. I realized that I needed to work hard and systematically at my art and my craft. I realized that if I were ever going to be able to call myself a master photographer that I would need to create a plan and to work diligently at that plan.

Some of these things I learned quickly, and others came over time. I could not have expressed this process two years ago. I can see it now as I look back, but I was not this clear as I was in the midst of the transition from "casual photographer" to "serious photographer".

My bottom line is that I must work at my art all the time. I have to show my work, and I have to be open to learning from others and from my experiences. I give myself projects as a means to compel me to work. In 2009 I started my "Spirit Tree Series". I worked on a regular basis on that project for a year. I pretty much finished that project and in 2010 I started working on "Arcata in Eureka". In 2011 I started "Eureka in Arcata" - I am still working some on all of those projects.

It is in having goals, and in having dedication to those goals where I realize success. It is in being out there photographing, working the images in post production, printing, and in sharing the prints that an artist hones their skills. This is where real progress happens.

STRANGE ANGELS

..."and you are traveling at the speed of light" (Laurie Anderson). 

 

 

Since my last posting the earth has spun once on its axis. Maybe it is the sunny weather, but I am waxing philosophical. Perhaps it was my morning meditation. What ever it is, I feel connected.

I am having a very good time going back through older images. I am reconnecting with some of the images from two years ago. I realize that I did have a clear sense of direction is what I was seeing and photographing then and now. The images I posted these last few days were some that I just allowed to ferment. I am connecting with the vision that I saw and felt then.