back to it

This seems to happen with me and photography; I get inspired by a class or workshop or trip. I take a bunch of pictures, vow to take pictures everyday, start a blog!, write and take pictures for a few days and then lose the discipline. I get disappointing results and lose faith. I see thousands of images and blogs and think “why bother?”

I know why I was gone and when I read some of my old posts here, I know why I have to come back. So a few words and a photo to get back to it.

This is just one of many reflections images taken during Freeman Patterson’s workshop in New Brunswick. We were encouraged to take many these images by one of our instructors and were taken to places with just the right combination of light and water to produce our abstracts.

henry wessel on kqed’s spark

I’m a big fan of photographing the mundane and that’s what Henry Wessel takes pictures of. If you get it right, that’s where the beauty and intrigue lies.

I’m always interested in knowing how photographers work. Wessel makes contact sheets and puts them away for years. He comes back and edits after he’s had some distance from the shooting. Having just gone through editing of old work, I think there’s something to be said for revisiting old work with new eyes.

Here’s the link to the Spark profile KQED aired.

henry wessel’s profile on spark 

atop a building near yerba buena

I’ve always liked this image. It was difficult to shoot and looking at the contact sheet, I don’t think I got the angle right on any of the shots. This image is as close to good as I could get and it is severely cropped. But back to what I like about the shot.

The woman is looking up to the sky as she rests on her arm. The perspective makes her bigger than her surroundings. She is in the midst of concrete and the Art Deco buildings provide a textured backdrop. (At another angle, the buildings are modern and cold.) Her form, ribbons of black, make her open and curvaceous. She seems relaxed and contemplative. Not really. There is a feeling of her being aloof, literally and removed from the setting. She is just a fixture, posed, still with something going on underneath.

photographers are highly encouraged to attend

It’s not every day that photographers are highly encouraged to attend an event. But that’s the case for a “dance for peace” event being held July 21st in Berkeley:

Come watch and join in the dance for Peace color wheel dance at Berkeley Marina on July 21st. Please join Troupe “Miari” in an interactive performance art, where the dancers are the art. With the backdrop of the bay…kites over head and earth underneath their feet. A living, breathing, dancing color wheel will come to life, and the dancers will invite you in for the finale.

5pm, dancers will form a color wave of veils on the Berkeley Pier, and then at 6pm, the Dancers will come together at the North Side of the Parking circle at the trail/bay edge.

Photographers and videographers highly encouraged to attend and get and share pictures of this event.

Dancers are sending net proceeds for their work to a local Domestic Abuse Center but encourage all who attend to support their own local favorite charity in honor of positivity and in honor of this event.

Drummers, Dancers of all styles of Dance, Mothers, Daughters, Sons, Fathers, Sisters and Brothers, Aunts and Uncles are encouraged to attend this new event. Drummers to accompany the dancers are highly encouraged to contact Pat, the event organizer, and choreographer at 510-741-1237

Peace to all, Peace within and Peace throughout..
Also note this event will also be at this Years Burning Man..

what was it like to work with ansel adams?

To coincide with the Yosemite Art exhibit at the Oakland Museum, Michael Krasny interviewed 2 photographers on his show today, including Ted Orland, who talked about taking pictures in Yosemite. The subject of Ansel Adams came up, of course, and Ted Orland talked about what it was like to work with him before he became an icon and what it was like to shoot in Yosemite before pictures of the place became so iconic. A discussion, too, about people who built roads in the park. It’s worth your time to listen to the entire show.

from: KQED – Forum with Michael Krasny

Fri, Jul 20, 2007 — 10:00 AM
Yosemite Art Exhibit at Oakland Museum

	Listen (RealMedia stream)
	Download (MP3) (Windows: right-click and choose “Save Target As.” Mac: hold Ctrl, click link, and choose “Save As.”)

The program explores Yosemite as captured by the artist’s eye over time.
Host: Dave Iverson
Guests:

Drew Johnson, curator of Fine Art Photography at the Oakland Museum of California and editor of “Capturing Light: Masterpieces of California Photography, 1850-2000″

Mark Klett, photographer and regents’ professor at the Herberger College of Art at Arizona State University and author of “Yosemite in Time: Ice Ages, Tree Clocks, Ghost Rivers”

Ted Orland, photographer, instructor at Cabrio College and author of “Art and Fear and The View from the Studio Door”

YenYen Chen, service ranger at Yosemite National Park

first snowfall at the grand tetons

It’s hot today and looking at this picture makes me cooler and longing to see the magnificent Grand Tetons. I took this picture a few years ago one October morning on the last day of my trip. When I woke up, snow was falling gently. I got dressed quickly, gathered up my camera equipment and drove to the mountains. Magical.

how kodak got its name

from Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, July 12, 2007

It’s the birthday of the man who gave us the Kodak camera, George Eastman, born in Waterville, New York. He was working at a bank when he got interested in photography around 1877. He took his first dry plate photograph the next year with the camera that he invented—a view of the building across the street from his window. He developed this little handheld camera, and he called it the Kodak because it was easy to remember, difficult to misspell, and it meant nothing, so it could only be associated with his product.

waiting for the light at hollis

I was waiting for the light at Hollis in Emeryville. It’s a long light and this man was waiting, too. I liked his shirt so I took his picture.

i got it at my local independent bookstore

Although I refer to Pegasus Books in my post, this picture is taken in the photography department in another fine bookstore, Powell’s in Portland.

I was looking for a copy of the New History of Photography by Michael Frizot. But it was out of print. I started my search on Amazon and found two places that had copies in very good condition and the price was $55 + shipping. I added it to my wish list.

A couple of days later, I wandered into my local used bookstore and headed for the photography section. There were 2 copies! of the book on the shelf. The right corner of the pages were bent on one copy and the binding was a little loose. The price was $30. The other copy was $40 and was in nearly flawless condition. So I bought the $40 version and patted myself on the back for saving myself $15 (plus shipping.)

I’ve gotten many used photography books at Pegasus on Solano in Berkeley and it’s always a treasure hunt. You never know what you’ll find. But you’ll always get a great deal and walk away wondering, “How could anyone give up this great book?”

ruthless editing

Last weekend, I went through all my slides and threw out stacks, or rather plastic page upon plastic page, of slides. There it all was, my pre-digital photographic history.

The first slides I ever took in a beginning photo class at Piedmont Adult School about 12 years ago. Shots of a car going by, shot at different shutter speeds. A photo essay about the old Barbara Streisand “museum” right before it was taken down. Bracketed shots, shots at different focal lengths. I was remembering back about what a revelation all these exercises were at the time and how much care I took to get the exercise right. I was using a manual camera, an old Olympus and slide film and processing was relatively expensive. So these factors made me consider more, I think. The work was precious and exhilerating to me then and I was proud to show it in class. Seeing it now, though, I remember that feeling of newness but not liking the resulting work much.

That feeling carried through as I looked at all the other slides. There was the workshop in Mono Lake and my stab at landscape photography. That trip to Yellowstone and the seeing the Tetons for the first time. I never did capture the grandeur to my satisfaction. Then the passion for macro photography and discovering abstract patterns and colors. Then came the night photography phase. I took pictures of industrial scenes, at night, exclusively for about two years.

After looking at all these slides and ruthlessly editing down the pile, I wasn’t left with much that I wanted to save. I found a couple of surprise slides, a few with promise and saved ones that maybe aren’t that good but have sentimental value.

When I started taking photography seriously, I knew I wouldn’t give it up, that it would be something I’d continue for the rest of my life. It wasn’t just a dabble like so many other things I tried. I couldn’t just try it and then give it up when something more interesting came along. Looking at these slides made me cringe, a lot! But it also showed me that I have become a better, not great, but better photographer, since my slide days.

I know when I go back and review those slides again in another year or two, I’ll toss many more. But for now, the edit seems just right-some sentiment, some art, some promise of work to come.

a slide I liked and saved, work I might want to continue 

Not a great shot but one that made me wish I had taken more downtown San Francisco shots when I worked there since I like photo essays.