Here is a pic from this weekend up in Eagle Creek. Not quite a full B&W but I thought the hint of color is adding a lot of interest. It was also shot at high ISO which is adding some nice texture.
This also is the first post where I am consolidating the blogs to here. So no more Photoblog on it's own. I think having both of them in one should make it more interesting.
11. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece on the back of a deli menu would not surprise me. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece with a silver Cartier fountain pen on an antique writing table in an airy SoHo loft would seriously surprise me. A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind. Which is why there are so many second-rate art directors with state-of-the-art Macintosh computers. Successful people, artists and nonartists alike, are very good at spotting pillars. They’re very good at doing without them. Even more important, once they’ve spotted a pillar, they’re very good at quickly getting rid of it. Good pillar management is one of the most valuable talents you can have on the planet. Keep asking the question, “Is this a pillar?” about every aspect of our business, our craft, our reason for being alive, and go from there. The more we ask, the better we get at spotting pillars, the more quickly the pillars vanish. 12. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
Good stuff here.
Drifting in Deep Waters Curated by James Luckett
Hmm, I seem to have missed this since it was a show in September, but I really like Jame's selection of photographs. There is a consistent tone and "stillness" to these images which I enjoy.
Found this on the internets today and I like it. It got me thinking about being creative and how I have been bogged down with thought and concepts instead of just creating for the sheer joy of creating.
Tattoo in progress video that gives me painful ideas... hmm...
The amount of stress we endure is increasing because of our focus on efficiency. Stress is caused by uncertainty, more specifically, by doubts in our ability to handle something. As machines and computers handle more things that are predictable and certain, we are pressured to deal with more things that are unpredictable and uncertain. This inevitably leads to more stress. As soon as our tasks become predictable and certain, we automate them using our technology. The result of this process of streamlining is that we are increasingly called upon to use our, what I would call, irrational abilities, such as instincts, sensibilities, creativities, and interpersonal skills. These things are, by nature, unpredictable. On this note, I am fully burnt out.
Modern fine art is a democratic milieu, offering a space and a semi-mystical aura to any loosely-defined perception presented by anyone anywhere who is interested in that place and that aura. And what medium to better occupy that space than photography, the most democratic and ubiquitous visual medium in the world, perhaps ever? Indeed, photographic prints, matted and framed, are quickly becoming a dominant sector of the art market, in both volume and gross sales, while on the Internet, every photographer has a direct and immediate international platform to display his or her creations. And yet why is it that such an egalitarian medium, and such an open discourse and market for fine art, have come together in such a way that fine art photography is so frequently dull and distasteful, so paralyzed by moribund subjects and forms?
I just spent almost en entire day discussion with my good friend why I hate Fine Art Photography so much. So it's nice to see someone a bit smarter then I write something on exactly this.
YouTube - Banksy versus Bristol Museum
Banksy versus Bristol Museum
Looks like he took over the entire museum with a game of "Spot the Banksy". Very good work.
Yes, I do hate to bag on software developers, but, Jesus. If I were one of Adobe’s Mac guys (and, obviously, if I had the resources and mandate to do so) I’d do any of four-ish things (And yes, I realize trying to do all of them at once is paradoxical and impossible. Pick one.):1. Start over. Not really exactly start over. But stop acting like these iterations around shuffling product lines and bolting on new bits of functionality is getting you anyplace good. Act like you’re inventing new apps for what people need today. For the OS people use today. Learn from the indies. To use a word that I’m allowed to invoke exactly quarterly: innovate. (See also: Lightroom) 2. Strip the shit out of everything. Cut down on cruft, chrome, gold plating, menu diarrhea, and all the other things that make Adobe apps feel like a carnival ride you’d NEVER put your kid on. Yes, be an auteur, but also be a mensch. Apply your own version of 80/20 rules to everywhere it applies. Viz: Does anyone use “Plastic Wrap” as much as “Unsharp Mask?” Okay. Then why are they on equivalent menu levels? Make it clear what’s really important but then (ala Quicksilver) also learn to bubble up what we each use the most.1 3. Stabilize. You know. The slow launches? The long saves? The crappy performance? The crashing? Yeah. Stop that. 4. Be nicer to us. Man, if you make software, you never want to be on my “Groan Pile.” That’s the apps that make me Groan as soon as I realize I have to launch them. MS Word is not only the President of Groan; it’s the 4-term FDR of Groan. But, Adobe makes some promising dark horse candidates for the next election cycle. Because, with Adobe apps, everything from installation through activation through re-activation through software updates through more re-re-reactivations through (HEY! more updates!) is like a giant rectal exam. That I paid for. Or maybe more like a weekly trip to the DMV where I’m confronted by a manic-depressive clerk who always thinks I’m lying about my age and eyesight. Swear to God, guys; I bought the fucking apps. See? And the updates? Wow. You should check out this new thing called “Sparkle.” It’s a Mac thing. Really catching on. Apps update and you don’t even have to go to the DMV every week to do it. Cherry. One (sometimes one of the extremely few) of the benefits of the annoyingly rabid Mac community is that we do talk to each other a lot, and we do absolutely have equivalents of pro wrestling’s faces and heels. Right now, Adobe is not regarded as a hero. No. Right now you’re the heavy guy from some country we don’t like who’s always with the folding chairs. Maybe you don’t want or need to be a hero to a bunch of portly men in Daring Fireball t-shirts. That’s understandable. And, in which case, yes, this is all beyond irrelevant. But, I’m assuming you want to do the right thing and that you want to reclaim your rightful place of honor within the community that, frankly, helped make you (yeah, I know you’re big competitors now, rah rah).
Holy crap, if you only knew how much Photoshop crashes on me everyday, you would weep. Everything I want to say is summed up in this link.
so many hemingways - This is what’s wrong with the world. Everything is...
“ This is what’s wrong with the world. Everything is explained now. We live in an age when you say casually to somebody ‘What’s the story on that?’ and they can run to the computer and tell you within five seconds. That’s fine, but sometimes I’d just as soon continue wondering. We have a deficit of wonder right now.
— Tom Waits
You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes... - Boring Boring Boring
“You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander. We build this place with the sand of memories; these castles are our memories and inventiveness made tangible. So part of us believes that when the tide starts coming in, we won’t really have lost anything, because actually only a symbol of it was there in the sand. Another part of us thinks we’ll figure out a way to divert the ocean. This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won’t wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be.”— Anne Lamott
In his years as an executive at Blue Note records, Francis Wolff repeatedly called upon his earlier training as a Photographer to document a veritable pantheon of American musical wizardry. Here, in the first of three installments, is a sampling of that fearsome chronicle:
Found this over at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats and it just kind of drives home my thoughts about the timeless beauty of B&W imagery. The tones and intensity of these pictures puts 90% of band photography to shame. Look at that pic of Max Roach! That is classic cool.
Profiles of Creative Pros - The Life of a Photoshop Artist/Model | Adobe TV
Meet the new creative class, the retoucher / model! Looking to save money on your next budget? Look no further!
Andre was in France visiting his ailing father when the call came. He thanked Vince Jr. but said there was no way he could get back in a ring, even though he very much wanted to. Not willing to give up, Vince Jr. flew to France to speak with Andre in person. He took Andre to see doctors specializing in back and knee maladies. Radical back surgery was proposed. If successful, the procedure would lessen Andre’s pain and perhaps make it possible for him to get in the ring for Wrestlemania. If Andre was game, Vince Jr. agreed to pay for the entire cost of the surgery.The time arrived, and the anesthesiologist was frantic. He had never put a person of Andre’s size under the gas before and had no idea how much to use. Various experts were brought in but no solution presented itself until one of the doctors asked Andre if he was a drinker. Andre responded that, yes, he’d been known to tip a glass from time to time. The doctor then wanted to know how much Andre drank and how much it took to get him drunk.
“Well,” rumbled the Giant, “It usually takes two liters of vodka just to make me feel warm inside.”
And thus was a solution found. The gas-passer was able to extrapolate a correct mixture for Andre by analyzing his alcohol intake. It was a medical breakthrough, and the system is still used to this day.
Five months later, Andre the Giant wrestled a “body-slam” match against Hulk Hogan and brought down the house.
So I have been held to the grind stone here for a full summer. House, wedding and work, where did the summer go? With Fall finally coming around, hiding behind this summer heat, I am starting to think about shooting again. I am being drawn toward black and white work for the first time in 15 years and it's refreshing. Looking around and imagining how something would look is making me want to reach for the camera again.Something about black and white is timeless as opposed to color where your color palette very much defines a time period. It is also more meditative and "still" to me. The simplicity of a range of tones, the cleanness. Yeah, I need to explore a bit there.
A large number of the tea party protesters relied on DC’s transit system to get around the city. The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA) reported that on Sept. 12, metrorail ridership was double compared to an average Saturday. The Washington metro, of course, is public transit — in other words, it’s run by big government. Nevertheless, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) has written a letter to WMATA complaining that the service wasn’t good enough for the tea baggers:
Cameron Davidson and the Abstract Aerial.
One of my clients did a interview for the Induro blog. He like to hang out of helicopters with big gyroscopic camera mounts.
I'll stick to the dark basement myself!
Photography is about the art of seeing the everyday as the new. Everyone can see and more and more with today's technology anyone can take a picture. But the best photographs make you think, "I have never looked at that like this before." So keep looking.
Be neither when you set out.
Be wise.