I’m a bit embarrassed that, as a long-time Californian, I had not thought to go to the redwoods to photograph flowers. However, Inge Fernau has and she is currently posting a wonderful series of photographs that make me think I need to get up there. Soon.
Category Archives: Commentary
In the Pipeline
It has been a fairly productive spring thus far – I’ve photographed in Death Valley, Yosemite, San Francisco, and many of the more local usual locations. At this point I have daily home page photographs “in the queue” out all the way to early July! In more or less chronological order, upcoming photographic subjects will include: many more photographs from my early April visit to Death Valley; several sets of spring seasonal photographs from the central California hills including trees, grassland, and wildflowers; a large collection of color and black and white photographs from two recent trips to Yosemite in spring; and some urban and street photography done in San Francisco, including some “urban landscapes.” Whew.
I also need to catch up on some technical/equipment oriented posts, including some additional information regarding my Canon EF 100-400 f/4-5.6 L IS lens, which I have now used fairly extensively. I also want to post some other general comments about the importance of – or perhaps more accurately, the unfortunate tendency of some to obsess over – small technical differences in equipment performance.
Thank you to those who have written email on a variety of subjects. I try to respond to all of them, but keep in mind that you can also a) join the site (link way down in the right sidebar) and post comments on my posts and/or b) join and participate in the discussion forum.
Sepia No More – The Flickr Aesthetic
A New York Times review by Virginia Heffernan comments on the development of a so-called Flickr aesthetic.
There is something to this, for better or for worse. Clearly, certain types of photographs that “work” on photographic social networking sites like Flickr (often images that work well in thumbnail-sized electronic version, presented by photographers who are adept at the social networking business) are often quite different from images that might work as prints in a gallery or other venue.
I found one interesting irony in the article. The author seems to describe the Flickr photography in somewhat condescending terms, often suggesting – and not always without reason – that the photographers are naive. The irony is that, for all of the author’s knowledge of artistic issues, she seems equally naive about several aspects of the Flickr phenomenon, digital photography and post-processing, and other more modern developments.
Accidental Photograph
Imagine that you had been planning a particular shot for a few months. The time was right – or so you thought – so you went to photograph it. Just as you were just finishing you turned around and saw another shot that you hadn’t noticed before. “Wow. I’d like to shoot that one!”
Let’s say that you figured that a focal length of about 100mm would be right for it so you reached into your bag and pulled out a lens to replace the lens that was on the camera. After attaching this lens something seemed odd when you looked through the viewfinder; the subject seemed a lot smaller than you expected. Undismayed you zoom in but can’t get “close” enough. But then you think, “Hey, wait. I kinda’ like the way it looked zoomed out.” So you shoot at the wide end anyway. You finish and put your camera away – and realize that instead of shooting at 100mm you were shooting at 17mm. Wrong lens. And you didn’t even notice. Sheesh.
You get home and go through the photos from the day’s shoot – and this oddball 17mm shot seems to get your attention. In fact, by the time you are done it not only seems like the best shot of the day but perhaps one of the better photographs that you’ve made recently.
By accident. As the result of a dumb mistake.
Would you admit this? Neither would I.