Category Archives: Ideas

Commentary, Ideas, Photography and Music

Music and Photography: Technique and Interpretation

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(I accidentally published this draft post earlier today while doing some site maintenance. Shortly afterwards a friend contacted me to say that he had composed a response… only to find that the article had disappeared when he finished writing. My apology! Even though the article is not perhaps final – for example, the title is not quite right for the content – I have resurrected it. I intend this to be part of a longer series of posts.)

There have been and are quite a few photographers who also have backgrounds in music, and in quite a few cases these individuals could have had – or actually did! – have careers in both fields. The story of Ansel Adams supposedly making a choice between being a photographer or a pianist is well-known, and there are plenty of other examples. I don’t presume to put myself in the same category as Adams, but I’m also one of these people.

When I talk with other photographers who either share this dual background or who are aware of the number of other photographers who do, the conversation sometimes turns to the question of why this is the case. What points of contact are there between the practice of music and the practice of photography? The differences seem to me to be quite obvious. Clearly one medium deals primarily with sound and the other with visual images. In addition – and I think this is even more significant – music uses the element of time in a way that photography rarely can.  Photographers almost never tell you in what order you must view photographs – though they may suggest – nor do they insist that you move on to the next image after some specified interval of time. While the photographer may intend for you to follow a particular path through some images, there is no way to ensure that you do… and you probably don’t! But the musical composer relies completely on controlling the flow of events in time. It is emphatically not OK to switch sections of a piece and so forth.

So, what is similar?

I think that there are several points of contact between music and photography. I have no illusion that I can say everything there is to say about this in one post, so let me start with a single very basic idea having to do with the relationship between technique and interpretation or expression. Continue reading Music and Photography: Technique and Interpretation →

Commentary, Ideas, Photograph Exposed, Technique

A Photograph Exposed: A Tale of Light

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(“A Photograph Exposed” is a series exploring some of my photographs in greater detail.)

On the weekend of June 18-19 of this year I made a point of getting to Yosemite so that I could photograph the high country on the first day that Tioga Pass Road was open for the season. On a shoot like this, my subjects range from some that I planned to shoot ahead of time to some that were completely unanticipated. Among the many things that might affect my decisions is the light itself, and this is a story about that light… and perhaps a few other things, too.

I had driven to the park very early on Saturday morning and after photographing straight through the morning I finally made it over the pass and headed down to Lee Vining Canyon to find a campsite for that night. After getting up at 3:30 a.m. and driving to the Sierra from the SF Bay Area and then shooting all morning, I was exhausted! I pulled into the first available site, paid my fee, and promptly fell asleep in the car for perhaps an hour. When I woke up I set up my camp and at about 3:00 or so headed down to Lee Vining to get some “dinner” – on “photographer time,” dinner tends to either be very early or very late, and on this day I made it early so that I could be back up in the park well before the “good light” started.

Heading back up to Tioga Pass after my mid-afternoon dinner, I had a few subject ideas in mind. Tuolumne Meadows itself was one possibility, and I knew that I wanted to watch for any cascades or creeks that would be flowing in the spring snow-melt conditions. Tenaya Lake was another possibility, and a client’s interest in photographs of Mount Conness had me thinking about the possibility of a photograph from Olmsted Point that included ice-covered Tenaya Lake and this peak. Continue reading A Photograph Exposed: A Tale of Light →

Equipment, Ideas, Technique

Backpacking and Photography

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This is the time of year when many of us find our thoughts turning the the upcoming backpacking season. (My home range is the Sierra Nevada, where I have backpacked for decades.) During the past week or two I’ve seen an upsurge in discussions of and questions about photography and backpacking. Several years ago I began posting annual updates on my approach to photography in the backcountry: “Backpacking Photography Equipment.”

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Commentary, Ideas, Site News

Borders and Watermarks

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From time to time people ask about the border around my photographs and the inclusion of various text elements within them. Since the question came up again recently I thought I’d explain.

John Muir Trail, Yosemite
The John Muir Trail crosses Cathedral Pass near Cathedral Peak on a late-summer morning

First, borders and watermarks and all the rest are an intrusion in an image, and we would all prefer to see photographs without those elements – preferably in the form of beautiful prints. Prints are the target output for my photography, and online versions are merely stand-ins for the prints. In an ideal world, it would be lovely to be able to share photographs online in an equivalent form.

However, I have to balance my desire to share with the realization that being overly innocent about these things is unwise.Opinions about this vary widely — ranging from those who feel fine about putting full size photographs out there “as is” to those who won’t share anything online at all. My position lies between those extremes. I think that it is possible to enjoy my photographs as they are presented on the web — at least that’s what people tell me! I also understand that no technique can completely thwart the bad guys. So I have arrived at a balance that works for me.

I do several things with photographs that I release “into the wild” in electronic form: Continue reading Borders and Watermarks →