never ending fascination

click 'er for bigger

thanks to CLW for this one

We've had a lot of this stuff around here lately, the cause of much consternation and anguish. Including a 50+ hour power outtage last weekend. Through that ordeal, we tried to maintain our humor - and some warmth as the interior temp of the house dipped into the 40's at night. Photography helped me through, so there are going to be some more of these pictures coming along in the near future.

What's the Story? or... Today's Rant

click 'er for bigger

From an unexpected source, I would imagine. This time I'm going to blame Apple, Inc.

If it hadn't been for the new laptop we purchased back in December, I wouldn't have found out about the ease of use of components such as iMovie and Garageband, bundled with the machine and which turn out to be more than merely functional. They are amazingly sophisticated tools that allow for a remarkable amount of user intervention. To the point that iMovie has rekindled the long dormant desire to make "movies," which back when I was still attempting such things we called "films" because they actually used long strands of film as the components in the final product. I gave up on that dream about the time Avid entered the marketplace with their high priced video editing paraphernalia.

Twenty + years later, "non linear editing" software combined with a simple laptop computer have become ubiquitous enough that without looking over my shoulder, I've gotten run over by the "video movement." Which is that everyone wants to make movies. In reality, the software/hardware manufacturers want us to make movies and succumb to our desires to tell stories. Look at the sales literature of the three 800 pound gorillas in the field of NLE software - Apple, Adobe, Avid - and then again at the literature of the dominant hardware lions - Sony, Canon, Nikon - and what they steadfastly insist is the reason for the dispersal of their tools is the need to tell stories.

I say fuck the storytellers, excuse my "French." Many of us are image makers who have refined the ability to tell a story with a single image, or evoke emotions or intellectual curiosity that don't rely upon the repetition of clichéd elements. I won't deny that stories are what captivate us, but as still photographers we've learned to show subtle qualities in a more economical manner than is possible with motion pictures. Movies are incredibly seductive. Given the opportunities, everyone would work on or make them. But the power of the still photograph is still immense. We read and experience them in a different part of the mind and soul. Perhaps it's a place of greater abstraction, one that requires less clarification. But it also empowers the sheer joy of seeing the world - which doesn't require a story or a moving documentary to explain.

Despite this tirade, no doubt I will continue to investigate the hardware/software knockout that has brought incredibly sophisticated motion picture capture tools within the reach of many of us in the comfortable, developed world.

Oh - and BTW, there is a man-made quality to this image: it's ice on a man made pond in a nearby development where we walk nearly every other day.

hither & yon

click 'er for bigger

There are always interesting combinations to be found. What is most remarkable about this sort of thing is the way the mind can put pieces together that are widely disparate, which may not have been viewed for months. Software only helped find the physical location of the pieces, and then create the combo. But it had nothing whatsoever to do with making the mental connection in the first place.

what was I thinking? (pt 54c)

click 'er for bigger

Some photographs are perfectly obvious upon viewing at any distance of time. The sunset was gorgeous, the animals were adorable, whatever. This one is more of a problem. What was the reason for the approach to the subject?

It wasn't the scenery I was looking at while wandering around in two feet of snow. The blanked out ground was erased from the composition, creating relationships between the visible elements that are not ordinarily evident. As mentioned previously, somewhat flippantly, I was most certainly attracted to the repaired crack in the concrete block wall, which signals movement of the ground beneath the corner of this building. It jags its way down the wall into the top of the fence, which leaves the two dimensional surface in an almost solid plane that turns 90 degrees and offers a barely opaque plane that disappears out of the frame, creating a tense imbalance. I think I actually saw all this while framing the view. And even more, that eludes me now, some three weeks after the fact.

For some other fascinating views of a walk in the snow, totally different from these, look at where Mauro Thon Giudici has been recently.

what was I thinking? (pt. 54b)

During our recent blizzard, despite my claims that I was never leaving the house again, the morning after my commutation ordeal I did indeed leave the house: long enough to carry a camera a distance of some quarter mile to observe whatever was (not) happening at the "center of town" and expose two rolls of film. On my way, there were some oddities that caught my attention. Looking at the exposures now, I wonder what I had in mind at the time. Maybe it was the cracks in the wall? Shapes in the starkness of the landscape? Or was it the snow on the fence? No, there's hardly any snow on the fence... It was the fence and the crack in the wall and the abstraction created by the two feet of snow. Yeah, that must be it. Whatever...

click 'er for bigger

I'd like to believe there is less of this sort of questioning going on as I do this photography thing longer. Surely if I can't figure out what I was after, there is little chance of demonstrating to anyone else what it was I was looking to display. Apparently I was "exercising my eye," but hadn't quite gotten warmed up yet. Ordinarily these kinds of exercises get edited out and shuffled into the contact sheet bin. Today I'm interested in the process of finding an image from a recent session that really works for me. We walk around and look and see, releasing the shutter any number of times, but only occasionally do we find subjects that really excite us. What is it that makes the spark?

click 'er for bigger

Better, but it's a fairly small crop from a 6 x 7 original. Couldn't get closer without trampling on the scene.

click 'er for bigger

Better still. But the spark didn't last, perhaps because I shortly after this went back inside, tired of struggling through knee high snow.

the 3 sibs

RDW; JHW; KMW; MoM in bkgnd

This is what we do on Christmas. Anybody want to share theirs?

where's the hog path at?

click 'er for bigger

Better put this up, or it's not going to happen.

The night prior to this photo, it took 5-1/2 hours to get home from the market, a trip that ordinarily takes 15 minutes. It was truly a challenge to yours truly's sanity and patience. At least I wasn't one of the unfortunates who spent over 24 hours in their car, as some out there did. You might say people around here don't know how to handle their vehicles in the snow. Alas, 4-5 days later, we're still digging our way out of 24 inches of this white stuff.

a bad day

click 'er for bigger

comcast buys nbc

Old news...Are we supposed to care?

The 3D sucked, and the flat version was cheesy. But otherwise the display technology was impressive. The "holiday" display in the Comcast headquarters, that is.

achieving new heights

click 'er for bigger

Foregoing the expense of renting one of these, I opted to make a phone call to the building owner across the street, in order to gain access to his roof. It only took about two years to make the call. But the assistance I received was substantial. This allowed me to cross one more county off my list of 93 for the court house project, which leaves me with six unvisited counties, and another three with multiple buildings that haven't all been recorded. I'm going to cross them all off in 2010 - then start reshooting those with technical problems. And maybe rent that towable lift once or twice to see the tops of buildings like Bath, Highland, and Culpeper counties.

down in a hole

click 'er for bigger

Part of our "holiday" travels.

one more - why not?

click 'er for bigger

evolution

click 'er for bigger

The changing landscape - from one man made feature to another. How long before it changes again?

blue

click 'er for bigger

Bigger would be better, but alas I would have to take you by the hand and lead you to this place.

genteel decay

click 'er for bigger
From Friday's two hour wait while getting vehicle serviced - at least it doesn't feel like a total loss of time.

more aggressive grading

Without really remembering it until moments ago when I found this photo while looking for something else, I realize there has been some allusion to this "aggressive grading" technique so visible in the development community around here prior to these most recent entries. It's had me in some awe for a while, as can be seen here. There are other examples around town, but it's a challenge to show something so massive, that takes place over a period of months, in a 2 x 3" photograph.

Another image from my foray into the fog last weekend , which appeared in the previous two entries, has been placed in the Exploring the Wilderness gallery.

aggressive grading 102

click 'er for bigger

 Somewhere in the vicinity of this and this. But it's obviously all been wiped "clean."

aggressive grading 101

click 'er for bigger

Another example of the site work that appears to be the norm around here these days: flatten it out and then try to sell the land. After most of a week of rain, it was a mucky mess out there. Location undisclosed, even though I was outside the secure area. But once the fog lifted, I felt rather exposed, and decided to make myself scarce.

"it's only a shed"

So we were told. I can hardly wait until the painter gets done with this baby!

click 'er for bigger

For those who care about the process: there are approximately 30 cuts per section of two square panels. Two of us spent at least a day to get all the way around this thing with all the x-es. (It looked better without them.)

The other notable condition about this structure is the material(s) that comprises the outer layer: Hardi-Plank siding in 4 x 10 sheets, and Azek polyvinyl chloride trim in various sizes. Both materials are intended to last forever. This intent appears to have been achieved. The problem is the waste. Azek is fairly obnoxious stuff to work with - we didn't become carpenters in order to be plumbers, which is what it feels like now that we're building with PVC - and the sawdust will eventually get into the ground and the water system to everyone's detriment. PVC is made from guess what? Imported petroleum, of course. Wikipedia says worldwide production is expected to reach 40 million tons by 2016. The off cuts go to the landfill, and will eventually decay, breaking into small particles that will leach into the water system. One hundred years from now, they're not going to appreciate our desire for "convenient longevity."

But it appears to fit right in with the "Post Modern Condition" of the original structure, which I originally wrote about here, when we started this project.

click 'er for bigger

Chris Jordan

In writing the recent entry on Edward Burtynsky, I was inspired to look at Chris Jordan's work again. It's definitely worth a look, and especially his newest work Midway, from a recent journey to the North Pacific island that is located at the apex of the Pacific garbage gyre. This is more bad news about how we are poisoning ourselves, and everything around us. In this case it's thousands of young albatross birds that have died of starvation because they are being fed a diet of plastic garbage by their unknowing parents. Jordan has photographed hundreds of decayed corpses to show the contents of their body cavities. This is amazing and powerfully disturbing stuff. But obviously only through awareness can we hope to do anything to change the problem.

Which leads one to wonder, if you care enough to look at the photographs and be affected by them, what are you going to do to change your lifestyle so that you don't contribute to the problem? Our lives are full of conveniences that have unintended but powerfully negative consequences. How do we become aware of them?

Look at the photos and change your life.