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"Most of us look at a thing and believe we have seen it, yet what we see is often only what our prejudices tell us to expect to see, or what our past experience tells us should be seen, or what our desire wants to see. Very rarely are we able to free our minds of thoughts and emotions, and just see for the simple pleasure of seeing. And so long as we fail to do this, so long will the essence of things be hidden from us."
– Bill Brandt
"Pursuit of definitive answers to creative challenges is like seeking the best apple in an orchard. You may find one that you believe to be it, but it is unlikely that you will be correct, or that such a thing even exists; and even if it does exist, it likely will change with the passage of time. It is far better, instead, to appreciate the beauty in every apple, the subtleties of taste and color that make each one unique."
– Guy Tal
"Look at the things around you, the immediate world around you. If you are alive, it will mean something to you, and if you care enough about photography, and if you know how to use it, you will want to photograph that meaningness. If you let other people's vision get between the world and your own, you will achieve that extremely common and worthless thing, a pictorial photograph."
– Paul Strand
The two images below were processed from the same digital negative; the version on the left in November of 2011, the other just this morning. They (hopefully) demonstrate progression in my photographic development, from the more heavy-handed and garish, toward the more subtle and nuanced (click to enlarge each). Occasionally undertaking an exercise like this is valuable in that it can provide insight and motivation to continue the hard work that leads to progress and improvement.
I have a show coming up in March at Old Soul in Midtown Sacramento. Details as follows:
Local Landscapes
Old Soul at The Alley
1716 L Street, Sacramento, CA
March 6-April 8, 2014
Reception: Saturday, March 8, 6-8 p.m.
We'll be at Old Soul on Second Saturday, March 8, from 6-8 p.m. We'd love to see you there!
American River at Effie Yeaw
"To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."
– Elliott Erwitt
“If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it."
– Lyndon B. Johnson
According to a study conducted at San Jose State University, the release of heavy metals into the environment by retail photo processing labs declined by 73% between 1996 and 2006. This is an obvious result of the decline of film and the ascension of digital photography.
My current process is digital up to the final step where I outsource to a hybrid digital/silver pro lab. I've often wondered about the environmental impact of continuing to use a silver-based printing process. Though it's impossible to get precise information from the labs regarding their disposal procedures, it's clear that those chemicals eventually end up somewhere, most likely in our rivers.
With that thought in mind, I've been considering going to an in-house pigment-based printing process; in other words, I'm thinking about purchasing a pro quality inkjet printer. If I do so, my process will be 100% digital from start to finish, and I'll have control over the waste products (at least until they go to the recycler).
The other factor is that black & white inkjet has finally fully come of age with the advent of Jon Cone's Piezography ink sets. Piezography's varying shades of gray ink are formulated specifically to replace the color inks in an inkjet printer. The result is a dedicated black & white printer capable of producing exceptionally subtle tones and gradients. Using these inks, black & white inkjet prints have the potential to surpass even the best traditional darkroom silver prints.
Stay tuned...
We live in an area dominated by California Oak Woodlands. From Wikipedia:
California oak woodland is a plant community found throughout the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California in the United States and northwestern Baja California in Mexico. Oak woodland is widespread at lower elevations in: coastal California; interior valleys of the Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges; and in a ring around the California Central Valley grasslands. The dominant trees are oaks, interspersed with other broadleaf and coniferous trees, with an understory of grasses, herbs, geophytes, and California native plants.
These woodlands signify home and figure prominently in my mind and in my artwork.
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."
– John Muir