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.
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.
Since several people have asked, I thought I would share an update on installation of my photographs at the historic Stovepipe Wells Lodge in Death Valley National Park. Late last year Ortega Family Enterprises (who also sell some of my photographs at Muir Woods National Monument) contacted me. They were about to take over the management of the facility from the previous concessionaire and were interested in selling some of my Death Valley photographs in the gift shop at Stovepipe Wells.
It turns out that they were also planning some significant upgrades to the lodging facilities at Stovepipe and they asked if I could provide a large number of 16″ x 24″ prints for the guest rooms. To make a long story short, they selected a half dozen of my Death Valley photographs and I went to work making nearly 170 prints of the six photographs, which were then shipped off to their framer for final preparation.
I finally got a chance to see the results when I visited Death Vally in early April. I stopped by and found out that they had begun the process of hanging the prints in guest rooms, and with the help of an employee I was able to get in long enough to snap a shot of one of the rooms. (Hanging in this room are “Transverse Dunes, Death Valley“ and “Crossing Tracks, Racetrack Playa.”) It was also good to see some work being done to upgrade and update the lodge!
It is gratifying to have my photographs installed here for several reasons. Several of the photographs were made virtually within walking distance of Stovepipe Wells, where I often camp when I visit the Valley. I also know that among the many people who visit Stovepipe will be a good number of my fellow photographers – and knowing that they will see my prints here is both a bit intimidating and a quite exciting! Finally, before Ortega took over the facility I often stopped to look at some of the photographs and paintings that had been there previously. (I was glad to see that one wonderful black and white photograph was still hanging in the hotel office.) With that in mind, it seems like there is a good chance that these photographs of mine may be hanging in this historic facility for some time to come!
My service provider has informed me that they are updating their server center during the next few days and that there may be a short (please!) downtime as they move equipment and data and so forth. The prediction is that this will occur sometime between 9:00 p.m. (MDT) on Sunday evening, March 27 and 5:00 a.m. (MDT) on Monday morning, March 28. At some point during this period my blog and gallery may be inaccessible for a time, and it would not surprise me if email is also temporarily delayed.
I apologize in advance for any interruption and trust that the outage will be brief.
In the sidebar of this web site I have a list of some of interesting photographers who catch my attention for various reasons. I added a couple new photographers to the list today… but I’m not going to say which ones are new. This is my devious way of encouraging you to explore some of those links and the wonderful photography you will find if you visit them.
You can find the links on any page at this site – just scroll down to find them in the sidebar along the left side of the page. The links take you away from this site and to the web sites of the respective photographers. Enjoy!
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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