A girl has to improve her mind and, despite appearances, I'm quite a studious girl. In fact, I believe girls like us tend to be interested in life and in people and possess an inherent insightfulness and creativity. As for the book, it's a brilliant one by a brilliant writer.

Eva: Alright, Dave, let's get this done.

Dave: Sure thing. But one question, why are you so intense and staring into the middle distance?

Eva: That's two questions disguised as one.

Dave: Can you indulge me?

Eva: I lust realized that this wall are will make the perfect backdrop for my album cover. And every good album cover needs someone intense staring into the middle distance.

Dave: You're cutting an album.

Eva: Sure thing. It will be revolutionary. But only when played on vinyl or CD.

Dave: Oh man, will the album be filled with jokes and puns like this?

Eva: I thought it was more accurate and insightful. And that is exactly what will be on the album. Me giving accurate, insightful, thought provoking and passionately shared opinions.

Dave: Sounds more like a podcast than an album.

Eva: Nope. I can't do a podcast.

Dave: Why not?

Eva: The person on the help line at apple got mad and hung up on me when I last called for support. She apparently didn't appreciate me asking why their phones were called apples when I couldn't eat them. Some genius bar that turned out to be.

----------

I've had this photo idea in mind for a while. There is a skateboard shop in town with a really cool wall mural. I took Eva there at 6am on Wednesday morning to get the shot. When we got there she started smouldering and wouldn't stop. But somehow the smoulder works.

Mark Greene, of Cars Yeah, interviewed me last week.

His site is a treasure trove of automotive related information presented in a PodCast format. An eclectic array of topics are presented in over 700 interviews, so there is something for everyone.

Marks questions were thought provoking, insightful, along with being just plain fun.

In a short half hour, a lot

of ground was covered.

Thanks Mark for a terrific time!

Here is the link to the interview and Mark's Webpage:

carsyeah.com/ourportfolio/703-michael-paul-smith/

carsyeah.com/

And here is the original photo of the TV/Radio Station that was posted on June of 2015:

www.flickr.com/photos/24796741@N05/23756249935/in/datepos...

I don't think any photographer should operate in a vacuum. They can, if they choose to, but I don't think it is the best course. One of the ways I have learned the most about photography is by looking at photography. You learn so much of the world through the talented and insightful eyes of other photographers. But to do so, you really have to look, not just glance. This can be done in several ways. You can spend months or years taking in another photographer's oeuvre, seeing where they see, how they see, watching them grow and evolve. You can do it by spending time with them, going out to make photos side by side, watching them work, talking with them. You can do it by listening to them, such as when they give lectures at the local art museum, to actually hear their thought process. And then when you really start to get them, it unlocks doors in the world for you to peek through as well. You will see things that you did not previously see.

I don't honestly know if I would have seen this image if not for my familiarity with Austin Granger. I might have, but I might not have, as well. It is a moot point because I did see this image just a couple of days after hearing him speak on his photography and I was thinking of him and how he sees the world and I have no doubt that influenced me finding this photo myself. His words, his vision heightened my appreciation for quiet, for light, for a simple meditative atmosphere. All ingredients here.

And for that, I thank you Austin. Keep up the good work.

Hasselblad 500C / Kodak Tri-X

Eatable Art ! | Sushi Art: Kazari Maki-zushi Demonstration

Sushi can be traced back to an ancient Chinese practice in which fish was preserved in salt and fermented rice. Sushi, as it is known today, first emerged in Japan during the Edo Period (1600-1868), in roadside stalls in Tokyo as a type of Japanese fast food. Despite its humble origins, this simple creation of a small portion of vinegared rice (shari) and accompanying fish topping (neta) has developed into a sophisticated culinary delicacy known and enjoyed around the world.

In a short time, Australians have also come a long way in their appreciation and understanding of the many facets of this Japanese delicacy. For the first time, this event will introduce Australians to the relatively new sushi art form of Kazari Maki-zushi, or ‘decorative sushi’, with an exciting demonstration by sushi master Ken Kawasumi. Kawasumi has pioneered the culinary art of transforming the simple sushi roll (maki-zushi) into an intricately designed masterpiece.

Since beginning a sushi apprenticeship at the age of 16, Kawasumi has spent 33 years perfecting his sushi crafting techniques. After working at a number of well-known sushi bars in the Tokyo precinct, he opened the popular sushi restaurant Kawasumi. Currently the Head of the prestigious Tokyo Sushi Academy, Kawasumi splits his time between training students at the Academy and travelling the world introducing Kazari Maki-zushi. Most recently he has delighted audiences in Scandinavia with his demonstrations. This year, Kawasumi was once again crowned the ‘All Japan Professional Sushi Contest Champion’ after triumphing over other sushi chefs from around Japan on the TV Tokyo series.

Following an insightful talk on the history of sushi and an introduction of the particular tools used, Kawasumi will demonstrate his fluid yet lightning-quick technique as he turns simple ingredients into finely crafted works of art. For fans of sushi, or those who are more interested in the artistic aspect, this demonstration is sure to take your appreciation of this culinary art to new heights. Be sure not to miss out on this special evening.

The superbloom in Death Valley was spectacular. When I knew it was coming, after the El Niño weather system became an obvious fact, I made plans to visit Death Valley at least twice this season. I've now completed my third trip. The first trip was very nearly not a reality. It was only in the last days before the tentative trip dates that it all came together. Once I'd visited once, I realized that a few days was not going to cut it, especially not for this once-in-a-decade natural phenomena. This year I've come to know the park so much better than ever before. I've spanned the park from the far southeast corner to the far northwest corner (over 6 hours apart by road!). I've met some great people, mostly hikers and photographers, and experienced some incredible sights, sounds and smells.

On this last trip, I finally managed to locate a majestic canyon that I've been seeking for the last few years. The feeling of walking around a bend in the trail to see the immediately recognizable scene from one of my favorite images was ecstatic. The scene was not merely beautiful. It was almost spiritually powerful. I found this canyon as though God Himself had carved a private cathedral out there in the desert in the middle of nowhere, just waiting to be found by any soul crazy enough to brave the elements and terrain to find it. It was in a pretty remote and rugged area. I managed to break yet another part on my truck this time, making it out of there with a sad sounding cracked muffler. More on this to come…

This particular scene in the image "Ephemeral Beauty" is named because I experienced this place 3 separate times over the course of a month or so, and watched it at its peak, and then disappear almost as suddenly as it had formed. The first 2 trips found this place exploding in vibrant hues of purple, gold, and white, flanked by rolling sand dunes and then rugged mountains.

The 3rd trip found it a barren wasteland, with only a few dried flowers hanging onto the stems, huge caterpillars crawling all over the sand dunes having gorged themselves on the remains of the dried plants. The smell of the bloom was mostly gone, and the desert was falling asleep again, heading into the dry heat of summer. I made this image about 2 weeks ago. I returned to the scene a few days ago to find it gone. This scene has now disappeared, and will not likely exist for the next 10-12 years. This is why I make the opportunity to take these crazy trips. Incredible things happen out there in nature, and sometimes they disappear for years, and occasionally they do so never to be seen again.

I'll leave you with this insightful quote I've been pondering:

“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.”

— J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan

Made on film.

Medium Format 6x7 color slide film

Fujichrome Velvia RVP 50

Mamiya RB67 Professional camera - made 46 years ago.

Mamiya-Sekor 90mm f/3.8 lens

Contax RX + Carl Zeiss Planar T* 1.4/85 + Kodak Vision 3 500T (pushed +1).

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French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle. Mâcon, no. 003/3. Photo: Collection: B. Courte; D.R. W.C. Fields at the set of My Little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940). Caption: W.C. Fields' humour is as much in his films as in everyday life! At the entrance to the studio where he is shooting his film, he has posted the following sign: "No admittance to this stage (with or without pass). This includes studio employees!"

W. C. Fields (1880-1946) was an American comedian, actor, juggler, and writer, who became known as an entertainer in vaudeville shows and on Broadway at the turn of the century. In the 1920s, he starred in numerous silent film comedies. Fields' comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist, who remained a sympathetic character despite his supposed contempt for children and dogs. In the 1930s and 1940, he became one of Hollywood's best-known film comedians. Among his recognisable trademarks were his swollen nose, raspy drawl, and grandiloquent vocabulary.

W. C. Fields was born William Claude Dukenfield in the Philadelphia suburb of Darby, Pennsylvania, in 1880. He was the eldest of five children born to Cockney immigrant James Dukenfield and Philadelphia native Kate Felton. He went to school for four years, then quit to work with his father selling vegetables from a horse cart. At eleven, after many fights with his alcoholic father (who hit him on the head with a shovel), he ran away from home. For a while he lived in a hole in the ground, depending on stolen food and clothing. His first regular job was delivering ice. By age thirteen he was a skilled pool player and juggler and began working in vaudeville. At the age of 21, he travelled across North America and Europe with a juggling act. He gradually incorporated comedy into his act. He imagined faking failures and caught the objects with his feet or on the rebound, with leg movements that might themselves appear accidental to the spectator. The difficulty and mastery of his tricks led to unanimous critical acclaim for his juggling skills, which later earned him a place in the juggling hall of fame. The same was true of billiards, which he practised assiduously to the point of creating tricks, such as hitting the ball in such a way that it jumps backwards, high above the table, and then bounces off a part of his body before entering the pocket, with several variations. Deliberately dressed in ragged clothes, extravagant top hats that made him famous, and a fake black moustache (although he was blond), his original tricks brought him international success. At age twenty-three he opened at the Palace in London and played with Sarah Bernhardt at Buckingham Palace. He starred at the Folies-Bergere with young Charles Chaplin and Maurice Chevalier on the program. In 1906, he made his Broadway debut in the comedy 'The Ham Tree'.

In 1915, when he was thirty-five, W.C. Fields moved to New York and made his film debut in the 15-minute short silent film Pool Sharks (Edwin Middleton, 1915), produced by Gaumont. He also participated in the script. On stage, he introduced a few novelties into his cabaret act including a crazy golf game which was seen by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld who contracted him. Fields was a featured comedian in the Ziegfeld Follies from 1915 through 1921. He became a star in the Broadway musical comedy 'Poppy' (1923), about carnival life, in which he played a colourful small-time con man, snake-oil peddler Eustace McGargle. It led to a role in 'George White's Scandals'. His subsequent stage and film roles were often similar scoundrels or henpecked everyman characters. In 1925 D.W. Griffith made a film of 'Poppy, renamed Sally of the Sawdust (1925), starring Fields. He was a sensation in Hollywood and settled into a mansion near Burbank, California. He made several highly popular short films before focusing on features full-time. He made twelve silent films before his first talkie in The Golf Specialist (1930). When sound came W.C. Fields was out as casting agents didn't like his voice. It was only when Paramount was casting Million Dollar Legs (1931) and wanted all the comedians they could get that he got a part. His breakthrough as a film actor came in 1933 with International House directed by A. Edward Sutherland. In the same year, he played Humpty-Dumpty in the commercially unsuccessful Lewis Carroll adaptation Alice in Wonderland, in which numerous other film stars also appeared. On the other hand, the comedy It's a Gift (Norman Z. McLeod, 1934) was a great success. Fields plays a family man who is troubled by nagging wives, bratty Baby Leroy, noisy neighbors, and pesky strangers and seeks his fortune with an orange plantation in California. It contained his famous "sleeping on the back porch" stage sketch. Also in 1934, four more Fields films were released, including You're Telling Me! in which his character - an unsuccessful inventor - receives unexpected help from a princess. The unusual role names Fields bore in his comedies are noteworthy: Professor Eustance McGargle, Elmer Prettywillie, Augustus Q. Winterbottom, J. Effingham Bellweather, Rollo La Rue, Egbert Sousè ("accent grave over the e"), Harold Bissonette ("pronounced Bissonay"), Ambrose Wolfinger, Larson E. Whipsnade, Cuthbert J. Twillie or T. Frothingill Bellows. The names were chosen by himself.

W.C. Fields' most famous role was the good-natured but notoriously profligate Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield (George Cukor, 1935). David was played by Freddie Bartholomew, who was only ten years old. Fields admired the Charles Dickens book and wanted desperately to play Mr. Micawber in the film, so he agreed to forego his usual ad-libs and put aside his distaste at working with child actors. After the film's release, Fields received excellent reviews; the New York Times even saw Fields as a "spiritual descendant" of Mr. Micawber. David Copperfield was the only film in which he acted as the script dictated and he did not improvise spontaneously in front of the camera. In 1936, W.C. Fields was forced to temporarily stop working due to an illness exacerbated by his alcoholism. he even gave up alcohol during this convalescence. His contract expired and was not renewed. He then turned to the radio and appeared in mostly spontaneous dialogues on Charlie McCarthy's radio shows with Edgar Bergen. To his surprise, his trading insults with ventriloquist's dummy Charlie McCarthy made him famous again and in 1938, he returned to the big screen. In 1939 he switched to Universal where he made films written mainly by and for himself. He had two of his biggest film successes at Universal in 1940, one alongside Mae West in the frivolous comedy My little Chickadee (Edward F. Cline, 1940), the other in the title role in The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline, 1940), one of his best-known films today. But his doctor's pleas for moderation did not help, and Fields persisted in his excessive consumption of alcohol, particularly gin. His last starring role was in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (Edward F. Cline, 1941). After long arguments with Universal, he secured almost complete artistic control over the film. The finished result enraged Universal Pictures and was a comedy full of surreal comedy and critical references to the Hollywood business. After that he largely retired from show business, taking only guest roles in a few feature films and occasional appearances on radio shows. In 1945, suffering from several illnesses (bouts of pneumonia, cirrhosis, etc.), he had to enter a sanatorium. He passed away in Pasadena in 1946. Ironically, W.C. Fields died on the holiday he always said he detested, Christmas Day. W.C. Fields was married in 1901 to Harriet Hughes, his partner in juggling performances at the time, and they had one child, William Jr. (1904). Although Hughes and Fields remained married until his death in 1946, they separated in 1908. He had another son with girlfriend Bessie Poole, named William Rexford Fields Morris (1917). His last mistress, Carlotta Monti, with whom he lived for 14 years, described some amusing and insightful anecdotes in the book 'W.C. Fields and Me'. He is interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA, in the Great Mausoleum, Holly Terrace entrance, Hall of Inspiration. He was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 7004 Hollywood Blvd. and for Radio at 6316 Hollywood Blvd.

Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, French, and English), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

These are a few of my favorite books. Missing: Hesse's Steppenwolf and I can't for the life of my figure out who I loaned that to as well as Coupland's Life After God, which I have read a few times but like to keep handy in the car to read in waiting rooms. Oh and JD. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey...I have no idea why or how I forgot these...maybe too obvious?

From top to bottom:

Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five

Galapagos

I know I'm probably not supposed to like the classic Vonnegut that everyone else likes but the book Slaughterhouse Five was there for me when I needed it and that's pretty much all you can ask of literature. Galapagos I think is Vonnegut at his best in alot of ways but it's also Vonnegut at perhaps his least hopeful...or atleast it shows he thinks we'd be better of as simpler creatures. I was sad to hear of his death recently...had tried to see him read a few years back and couldn't get into the downtown library as it was filled to capacity.

Virginia Woolf: To The Lighthouse:

I love Virginia Woolf and this book is not only flawless but WAY ahead of it's time. Virginia is both why I love being a woman (because we're wildly creative in the tangential way men aren't) and hate being a women (because we're just not very rational).

Don Delillo: Mao II

I know alot of people love White Noise but Mao II is an excellent delve into mass media and culture as well as the parallels between the writer and the terrorist. I found it fascinating.

Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

I love so many things about Oscar Wilde and I suppose without him, we might never have had Morrissey if you think about it a certain way. I think his plays are of course hilarious but there's a darker side to Dorian Gray that he explores much more thoroughly than the mere inferences of many of his play characters.

Graham Greene: The Power and the Glory

I don't know...you know, there's something comforting and yet revealing and insightful in Greene. Haven't read this one in awhile and I feel it's about time I revisit it.

Paul Auster: City of Glass

I started reading Auster for an experimental fiction class I took in college and I find he is really one of those who is wildly creative and adept at speaking to the reader so that you feel you are almost part of the storyline...which is intriguing even if it is complex enough to warrant taking notes on.

Haruki Marukami: Norwegian Wood

I've read several of Murakami's books but none really hit me like this one (Hard Boiled Wonderland is perhaps a close second). I think maybe because it involves music intertwined with the frailty of relationships and the lives particularily of the women the protagonist falls in love with

Italo Calvino: Invisible Cities

This is the first book I read by Calvino-a collection of stories that really made me sense and dream more than any other short stories have...in the way that I wanted to just live in that place and nowhere else.

Milan Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

I'm no stranger to Kundera and, though I haven't quite read everything yet, every book I have read is profound in its own way and gets me to think about identity, gestures, and moments in a consideration and perspective I would never have before. The problem is, every time I read Kundera, I actually go through a major depression.

John Berger: To The Wedding

Berger is an art critic as well so some of his descriptions are just very visually appealing. I've read G and King as well and enjoyed those but To The Wedding had that extra something that made me read it twice and cry both times.

Andrew Sean Greer: The Confessions of Max Tivoli:

Soon to be made into a film starring Brad Pitt (blech!) is this book. I discovered it a year or so ago and it was one of those books I read frantically as if I was incredibly scared I might die before finishing it. It is fantastic-about being born as an old man and aging in reverse and losing everyone around you as you slowly become so young you are an infant. It's also about the nature of changing relationships and, of course, despair.

Sarah Vowell: Assassination Vacation

I love Sarah...she's such a political geek but she equates alot of the politics and feelings to music somehow in a way you don't see coming and she makes trekking across America to find various plaques on Lincoln seem like the most exciting thing on earth.

DBC Pierre: Vernon God Little

I still haven't read his new one as I've had trouble finding it...I thought this book was as creative as it was grim and I'm still not so sure about the ending (as in what end up actually happening) Set in the death penalty capital of the world, Texas.

Flannery O'Connor (Stories)

I've been pressuring a certain friend of mine to read Flannery (sorry Rory) because I love her sometimes even more than Virgina Woolf, which I didn't even think was possible. Flannery is one of those short writers that is always profound and brilliant. She has endings that just make your jaw drop. Favorites: "Parker's Back" "The Lame Shall Enter First."

Jose Saramago: Blindness

Seeing (techincally the sequel) is also brilliant but you just have to read this first...it's about the nature of seeing and the fabric that sight weaves into our reality and world. Any must for a photographer who is curious about how a society would react if they all went completely blind. And, of course, it's a character study into the darkness of man and all that. Seeing is more political and explores the idea of how far pretty much any government will go to oppress its own people in order to keep in power.

Douglas Coupland: Girlfriend in a Coma

I've read every work of fiction Coupland has ever written and I have a great friend in NYC who is always getting me Coupland's autographs. This one is a definite favorite-particularily for the ending which encourages you to get out in the world and actually change things at the expense of your livelihood and sanity-question everything and make the world a better place...a place you'd actually want to live in. I've read this book several times-have memorized passages of it-and tend to read it whenever I feel I am slipping into a very deep depression.

John Irving: A Prayer for Owen Meany

I read this book when I was in high school and it was one of the first books that made me weep. It is so moving and I really cherish it as a complete work of fiction.

Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex

This book is epic in its coverage of the multigenerational story of a family who came from Greece to Detroit. The main character is an intersexual (born with both organs) which goes undiscovered by his parents. He is raised as a girl even though he strongly feels male. It has alot to do with psychology but it just also makes you feel with excellent writing. The Virgin Suicides misses the mark relative to this one. I'm not sure if he'll ever write anything as good.

Douglas Adams: Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Everyone needs a little lightness once in awhile and the kind Adams provides is guilt free because it is so intelligent and creative that you don't feel bad for laughing even if famine and global warming are making you feel like it's the end of the world.

Salman Rushdie: The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Ok...so the ending isn't as great as 90% of the rest of this but it is still a brilliant book filled with rich storytelling and connections to music. Any avid photographer will read it and fall in love with the protagonist Rai who takes photographs despite all danger and forsaking rational thought. And when I mean fall in love, I don't mean some flippant way. I mean...you wish he existed.

Last but not least...

The Riverside Shakespeare

It's funny because I never fully "got" Shakespeare when I was in high school and had to read play after play. I mean, I liked Romeo and Juliet (duh! Romeo was hot and obviously good at poetry!) and all that but I didn't really connect with it until I took Shakespeare in college. There are many brilliant plays that you don't fully sense until you really study them and analyze them at length but the one that is my favorite above all the others is King Lear and the ending always makes me weep like a little girl:

"Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life and thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more, Never never never never never."

Dave: Agnes, you're being particularly brave on this solo photo adventure

Agnes: I am. Now that we're not in the SUV, the front of the school, or walking within 50 feet of a roadway I am being especially brave.

Dave: Do you want a reward cheerio?

Agnes: Nope. Too freaked out for that. The chewing may distract me from danger.

Dave: Noted. Now if you can just intensely stare off the the right I think I can get a good photo of you by these windows.

Agnes: Got it. I'll just think deep thoughts. That will help me pose.

Dave: Thanks. You're such a pro.

Agnes: Here's my deep thought. You know how some people say that photography is a window to the soul?

Dave: I have heard that.

Agnes: Well, these windows are windows to a high school.

Dave: And that's a metaphor because higher education is a window to the world?

Agnes: Nope. The only metaphor here is that these windows represent higher education because it's a two story high school.

Dave: Very insightful.

Agnes: Indeed I am. But, do you have the photo? I'd like to get home to watch the world through the front window with Bruno and Eva.

---------

I took Agnes for a photo by one of the local high schools. They have great looking rectangular windows facing the main street with a mid century modern feel to them and I was intending to get a graphic photo in front of. But the front of the school proved too freaky for Agnes so we moved to the back by the football field where the windows are in much worse shape and jammed up right next to the parking lot. Plus Aggie was still a bit uneasy so I stayed close and used them as an out of focus background. What held her attention was the arrival of another dog on walk across the other side of the football field.

High Museum of Art

Atlanta (Midtown), Georgia, USA.

21 August 2021.

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▶ "Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso are two of the foremost figures in the history of twentieth-century art. This touring exhibition, which debuted in 2019 at the Musée National Picasso-Paris and is coming to the High this summer, presents more than one hundred paintings, sculptures, and works on paper spanning Calder’s and Picasso’s careers that reveal the radical innovation and enduring influence of their art.

Calder’s wire figures, paintings, drawings, and revolutionary nonobjective mobiles, stabiles, and standing mobiles are integrated throughout the exhibition with profoundly inventive works by Picasso in every media. The juxtapositions are insightful, surprising, and challenging, demonstrating the striking innovations these great artists introduced through their ceaseless reexamination of form, line, and space."

— High Museum.

***************

▶ Photo by Yours For Good Fermentables.com.

▶ For a larger image, type 'L' (without the quotation marks).

— Follow on Facebook: YoursForGoodFermentables.

— Follow on Instagram: @tcizauskas.

▶ Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.

— Lens: Lumix G 20/F1.7 II.

— Edit: Photoshop Elements 15, Nik Collection.

▶ Commercial use requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.

be your own beloved. day 25. my self-love journey

Looking through that window, while hearing the click of the camera behind me, I realized that I could keep doing that (exploring life and myself through the camera) my whole life.

Indeed, my hope is to continue to do this but always with a compassionate and lovingly gaze.

Always with an amazed,

authentic, honest,

passionate and peaceful gaze.

Always with a grateful,

insightful, playful,

humble and respectful gaze.

Always with a free and balanced gaze.

Always with a soft and very light gaze.

I want to credit my husband for his wise advices about how to improve my backlighting photos. He is so kind and generous... and so very patient.

WA.

i am still digging some shots i never bothered posting. it's insightful going through years of photographies.

on a side note, i knew i couldn't stay away from a Leica camera for too long. i pulled the trigger on the Leica Q.

YUP

comments anyone?

MEME SOURCE: knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-people-think-i-do-what-i-real...

As I have practiced it, photography produces pleasure by simplicity. I see something special and show it to the camera. A picture is produced. -- Sam Abell

"Automatic" means bad. -- Jake Shivery

A pinhole image of the carousel at Jantzen Beach I took this past winter sometime or other. We took Owen down for a spin or two on the carousel, so I had some time for a few long pinhole exposures. The first couple times around I think he was terrified, but he got accustomed to the crazy lights, piped-in music, slightly demonic looking horses and was enjoying himself by the end. I would have paid decent money to have known his thoughts in those first few minutes though...

In terms of the quotes, I figured I would use this image for the second part in my little "mini-series" on my experiences learning and teaching photography. The first quote speaks for itself, and I think is an invaluable lesson for all of us to always remember (though I think all of us will only sometimes remember, and only some of us will always remember). I think simplicity lies at the heart of most good photography, by that nature, most good photographers.

Now, I don't mean simplicity in the manner of shunning technology, use only the most basic of equipment, and all that. I mean simplicity in one's approach to photography. As I was talking about in an earlier post, start by getting a camera that fits you, that is not more than you can understand or operate. And then learn it, understand what it is always doing and why. Keep your photography simple and easy to understand and you will become a better photographer.

Ah, but here is where simplicity is a bit duplicitous. I also don't mean simplicity in the manner of setting your camera to all-auto-everything-all-the-time mode. You know, the mode that is actually represented on some cameras with a green smiley face? (I think this idea was thought up by the same people who named the Contax AX personally) Without trying to be mean, this mode is often referred to as the "dummy" mode, which in a brutal sense of the word, it is.

Ok, let me explain my thoughts on this a bit further. One of the reasons we sell manual cameras so often to students, or rather, recommend manual cameras to students, is to force them to learn the basics. To learn what a shutter speed is, or an aperture. What happens at f2.8 versus f22. To learn how to read an exposure meter and what 1 stop under will do as opposed to 1 stop over. To be able to read the manual dial off a flash and correctly expose a photo using fill-flash and no flash meter. To be able to focus properly for goodness sakes. I sadly know a number of people who have trouble focusing, not because they have poor eyesight, but because they have spent their entire photographic lives with either auto-focus cameras or point and shoots.

Again, let me slow down for a moment. I am not nay-saying automatic. In fact I think in some situations having auto-focus or auto-exposure or TTL flash metering is preferrable to doing it manually (though I never ever think it is essential). What I am trying to convey here is that if you want to effectively use these features, and in turn your camera, and in turn be a better photographer, you need to understand the principles and the technology behind them. You have to know that when the program mode automatically selects 1/30th of a second while you are shooting your 300mm lens hand-held you are probably going to get blurry photos.

But it is more than that really. It is more than just simply having an understanding of what that machine in your hands is doing. As Sam Abell might say, it is the difference between you showing something to your camera and your camera showing something to you.

And this is a hard lesson for us to remember because automatic technology makes things so eeeeasy. It makes it quicker. It saves us from having to think or worry. But how often is quick and easy also the same as a job well done? Sometimes it is sure, but often it is not. Technology in this case softens us, and spoils us as photographers. We forget who to do things on our own. We forget that photographers survived for decades without TTL flash metering, without 3D matrix meters, without 9-point autofocus...

I attended a workshop once by RMSP and listened to a captivating lecture by Craig Tanner who had a lot of insightful things to say. One of his best was to learn to gauge your exposure without using a meter. Everytime he went out he would make notes of the conditions he was shooting in and the exposures in those conditions. Eventually he got to the point where he didn't even need his meter and just stopped using it altogether. By paying attention, taking notes and by gods, learning, he had become his own exposure meter. By doing so he explained that he was able to stop worrying about exposure. He was no longer a slave to his meter, constantly ducking back behind the viewfinder to check it. The time he used to spend thinking about exposure, he spent thinking about the picture he was going to take. He removed exposure as a distraction to his photography.

Simplicity.

Kurz entschlossen, 1992-02, 126x95 cm, Acryl auf Hartplatte. Detail (Ein Schlüsselbild = ein aufschlussreiches Bild).

Short decided, 1992-02, 50x36 inch, acrylic on hardboard.

Detail (A keyframe = an insightful, important image

Nur im Notfall Glasscheiben einschlagen.

Unbefugten ist das Betrachten gestattet.

Only turn in an emergency glass panes.

Unauthorized viewing is allowed.

Mein Zimmer ist ja nicht nur auf mich bezogen. Es bedeutet ja auch den Hinweis auf Ihr eigenes Leben, Ihren Lebensraum, Ihr Zimmer. Ich öffne für Sie einen kleinen Einblick meiner Privatspäre und meiner Gedanken. Ich hoffe, wir treffen uns freundlich und verständnisvoll.

Mein Zimmer - My room is so not only in relation me. It means indeed a reference to your own life, your living space, your room. I open for you a glimpse of my privacy and my thoughts. I hope we will meet friendly and understanding.

an insightful street capture hmmmm

Thank you for your beautiful, and insightful comment. I get tired of fighting for the right to different.

Update: Made it to the bottom of top 20 Orange!! yay !!! Thanks people.

Model is Ashley

Glad i finally got to shoot this concept c:

View on large peez

I found my old dream journal with some beautifully written and insightful dreams in it. Toootally getting inspired to do photos depicting them ♥

Anytime a client says they want their photos to be “on the beach at sunset” I tell them that’s the riskiest place to go. At least here in California, dramatic sunset are rare. Especially in the summer with the June Gloom or perfectly blue skies. Winter offers better possibilities at least.

So for their maternity we did some photos at their house, then a park and I started noticing the high level cirrus clouds, so we hustled it to the beach and did some test shots before getting the good stuff. Instead of posting the final product, thought it might a little more insightful to see this insanely simple setup. This really isn’t rocket surgery.

I used a Nikon SB800 on Manual mode with the little diffuser thingy over the flash on 1/1 (full) power. I used these cheap iShoot PT-04CN triggers I got off ebay for about $25 to trigger them on a simple $20 light stand raised up around head level so the light wouldn’t spill too much on the ground around them. My D4 was set to expose for the sunset, so 1/200, f/6.3 ISO 100. So making sure the sun was still out is also key, otherwise the foreground would be a LOT darker than the sky and the flash would only light up the subjects. Luckily the sun was obscured by the clouds enough to include it in there, otherwise I’d have to either hide the sun behind the subject or lower the f-stop to around f/16 in order to expose for it.

Now all you have to do is have them pose normal, lie about the water being warm and make sure a wave doesn’t tip over your flash. I tend to learn things the hard way.

SparthPhoto

500px

Getty

It is always interesting to observe a child confronted to the emptiness of nature. i wasn't far behind her, but let her go around, seeing how far she would go on her own. she was actually pretty courageous. insightful.

France, Auvergne region, 2011.

I had an interesting and insightful time here at Conisbrough Castle. A very cold windy winters day just added to our time there. Friendly staff at the visitor centre and holographic story telling on the three floors of the tower. Wonderful views all around.

At the time of the Norman Conquest the manor of Conisbrough was held by King Harold - he was defeated at the Battle of Hastings, 1066.

It dates back the 12th Century. It has 3 floors and a roof. The 29m polygonal form of keep, with external buttresses, is now unique since the demise of other castles of this era. It was re-roofed and floored between 1993 and 1995.

English Heritage took over control of the castle in 2008 and continues to operate the property as a popular tourist attraction. It is a Grade I listed ruins and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument because of its national importance.

Well worth a visit if you get the opportunity.

I had a really long, really honest, and really insightful discussion with Lamont this morning. Standing on Damen at 6 am, between traffic and exhaust fumes, we talked about our lives.

About family and friends. About respect and rejection. About love and hate. About inner peace and inner anger. About demons and salvation. About needs and wants.

It's nice to connect on a personal level.

Brunos Sculpture Garden, Marysville. Nestled amongst the luscious rainforest setting lives a collection of unforgettable characters lovingly hand crafted by Bruno from clay and fired onsite in his kiln. Bruno has created a world rich with fantasy and insightful beauty derived from his imagination and inspired by his intrepid journeys to some the world most intriguing and remote regions. .

Unfortunately on the 7th of February 2009 a bushfire raged through the township, decimating everything in its path without mercy and claimed the lives of our friends and neighbours indiscriminately. Bruno was extremely lucky to survive and the rest of the family are safe and well. Bruno's home and art gallery were unfortunately completely destroyed in the blaze. .

Bruno chose to stay in Marysville to rebuild his home and restore the gardens. Bruno’s passion to share his love of art and the story of life with the world has not been damaged by the fires, in fact you would almost say it has been forged anew by the flames that nearly took it all away. (Excerpts from Bruno's Art & Sculpture garden website www.brunosart.com)

Daily Photo - The Lincoln Memorial

DC is certainly one of those no-tripod areas, especially when very close to some of the key installations. And, some of those Federal guards are not the ones who are up for a good argument. I wonder sometimes if they do a little face-recognition on me and get a general sense of my Libertarianism. That surely would not help me win any arguments...

So I had to take this one handheld. It was dark inside and the time was way past sunset. Since the only ambient light was manmade, I had to wedge myself into a corner to keep the camera as still as possible for the exposures. Of course, quick shutter speeds are a must, so I cranked up the ISO a bit to keep things snappy.

David DuChemin's eBooks

Who is David DuChemin? He's a great photographer, a fantastic writer, an insightful teacher, and a fun guy. What else could you ask for?

I have been exploring and reading some of David's new eBooks. David has published two "traditional" books through Peachpit (also my publisher), and now he is putting a lot of energy into eBooks. These are very reasonably priced (around $5), so I suggest you check them out.

After reading several of David's eBooks, I can see how much time and thought he has put into them. The books are not huge, nor are they little pamphlets. They are just about right... there is no doubt that you feel like you got more than your money's worth. To see more, visit www.stuckincustoms.com/links/david-ebooks. Tell me what you think!

from the blog www.stuckincustoms.com

In November of 1978, Keith Green released a profoundly insightful song entitled, "Asleep in the Light." Can't help but thinks of that with an image like this.

Today is the day that we Buddhists celebrate the enlightenment of Buddha and thus rejoice in the path of peace and liberation from suffering, which he so selflessly offered up to us and made his life's mission. It is a day that changed the world and I seek to keep that vision and energy alive today. My wish is that next Rohatsu be one that greets a liberated Tibet, a liberated China, a liberated Burma and liberation in all forms for all of us. I hope you all had an insightful and peaceful Rohatsu and I bow to you all.

Dedicated to my dear FlickrFriend Marcelo for his loyalty, his soulful and insightful comments and for his encouragement: www.flickr.com/photos/marxx/