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Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
14th Annual Friends of Friends Photography Auction
November 29, 2010
study shows people ignore generic photos
November 19, 2010Most people can agree that run-of-the-mill stock photos can be boring and not generate any communications nor add interest. a new study by Jakob Nielsen, a web consultant and author finds that not only do they not elicit a responce or add anything but people actually ignore them. with eye-tracking software researchers can see where people are looking or not looking.
see the New York Times for the full article.
My life as a photography subject. who needs photo salon?
November 17, 2010i’ve been asking a member of photo salon held each 3rd wed at soho photo to show my work there to the members who are mostly commercial photog’s and have been ignored by emmanuel on each request.
photo salon is the playground of The Photogroup Salon Committee
Jay Maisel, Howard Schatz, Bill Westheimer, Jack Reznicki, David Hodgson, Rich Pomerantz, Emmanuel Faure all of whom are excellent photog’s in their own right, they started photo salon to show their work to friends and family, but have expanded to show others as well.
shadows
i am the type of person who takes these things personally; rejections, acceptances, awards etc but try and put on a humble public face. yes it does hurt not to be accepted no matter where from the playground as children to the workplace.
it’s true i didn’t voter for myself during voting for my first emmy back in 1985. i thought that it wasn’t right to vote for yourself, of course i was lucky others voted me a winner. where did i get these cockamamie ideas? the next year of my second nomination i did vote for myself and won again. but that’s neither here nor there.
Philip F Clark writes in his The Artpoint blog about the painter Max Rodriguez that he ‘understands that art is an act of freedom.’ well so do i and others have that same right.
reflections-inspired by jay maisel
but looking at my work now, maybe they are right that i don’t fit the groups esthetic nor commercial aspect.
man on the stairs
after all my work is really just a snap shot of my life. i can’t take pictures of someplace i’ve not been to. it’s a real chore keeping up with my life photography and trying to run an informative blog such as this, but what the hell else do i have to do during the daytime? so these images are a part of my life where i’ve been
metal door
but my life isn’t something i do for others pleasure, I DO IT FOR ME. i love to share my occurences and discoveries with others, how i see things
hallway
or what i don’t see but am there anyways. so i’ve come to the same conclusion that groucho marx came to, of not wanting to belong to any club who would have me.
man with cell phone
so i’ll just continue doing what i do, wandering around the city taking pictures as photographers have done since the invention of photography or maybe i’ll go below and see what there is to see.
hallway
radios
textures
hatchway door handle
moving down deeper into the innards of life, as was shared by a teacher of mine’ Self discovery isn’t always good news’
ship walls
engine room
until we get to the proverbial locked door, do we have what it takes to open the door and see what’s behind it?
chained door
oh well so photo salon won’t let me be a part of them. i’ll just have to continue doing what i do and they will be the lesser for it. i know i am loved and a fairly talented guy who’s just doing this because i love to make pictures. this is my life. thank you for sharing in it.
goodby Mendocino Ca. final pictures
November 13, 2010the great american adventure , mary’s and my train travel across and conclusion in caifornia is over. bills are recorded time to move on other projects needing attention so i’ve burned the last disk of images, twelve in all 48 gb of images. there is no way of sharing all. but this is a start
mendocino hotel, calif
wandering around the town taking everything in
inn
church
town of mendocino ca
but as i wander around so does my mind as i discover new things
garden light
tower house
fence with red plastic tack
tree
and of course where there is light then comes darkness
mendocino fire dept
sunset over mendocino
sunset over mendocino
etched window
house for sale
silhouette, mendocino ca
but what would any picture story of mendocino be without the famous carved topping to this downtown icon.
carving
a topping to a wonderful trip. well worth the effort of dragging suitcases on and off trains every few days then resting and celebrating our wedding in a quaint town such as this.
International Aperture Award 2010, bronze award in landscape
November 12, 2010i was going to try and finish up the california trip today having caught up with posting expenses etc, cleaned my kitchen yesterday washed the window always a hard job because the window has an exhaust fan in it that gets the window screen greasy so ammonia has to be used. the one positive effect of cleaning with ammonia is i can breathe easier now. but that’s why i left the chemical darkroom the smell of the fixer.ugh
but reading my email this morning i had some pleasant news from the International Aperture Awards
Aperture Award announcement
pretty cool huh? i love this image maybe because i know the story of when and where. it was taken on RT 7 in Vermont during the time i was showing mary around where i grew up and where my family was from. We had an exhibit in Burlington and decided to drive up there to deliver the prints and stay for the opening.
this picture looks across farmland in front of Lake Champlain [not seen] toward the mountains of new york state in the background. mary stopped the car and pulled over and i took a couple of exposures. i loved the lone tree and the rays of lighting. it reminds me of how i’ve felt most of my life, me against the world.
this is the same trip where i asked mary if she would be my wife. life has changed for me now, i don’t feel as if i am alone in this world. even if i’d not asked and mary accepted my proposal did i feel the same old negative feelings of being alone. i had mary in my life but i wanted to make a statement, to whom i am not sure, the world? how i felt about her and what she really meant to me.
having her in ones corner is a real asset because once she makes up her mind, she’s there. so maybe this tree symbolizes mary and not me. i have to remember life isn’t all about me nor are the pictures. they actually present themselves to the world for all to see and if i am lucky enough to be there and capture the moment with my brownie i have a way of remembering and sharing that moment of beauty with others.
just like now, being married to mary, we both have the legal & moral right to share and enjoy our work together. my life has improved so much after meeting her, being open with her is something i highly recommend as is having love in ones life. it does open new vistas and opportunities. but don’t get any funny ideas as she is taken and we don’t share well with strangers.
so any award i win we both win as she is a part of what and where i do life along with how open my eyes and ears are. having a life and sharing it is a wonderful thing, i highly recommend it.
so maybe you can think of ways you can share your life and the wonders that befall you, or just turn to the stranger next to you and say hello. it does make a difference.
onward to the land of golden sunsets
November 8, 2010another day of travel packing and dragging suitcases to another train. thinking of where we’ll be next but first getting out of here.
downtown reno
reno bus station
and of course a cowboys pickup truck
new cowboys horse
pretty cool buses but i think some of them are diesel fuel, don’t remember if this is one of them. but soon our delayed train, yes another one and the same old excuse freight train in front of them. but the train station is comfortable and not too crowded.
here comes the train
baggage is still handled the old way which is pretty cool
baggage wagon
we are traveling coach because our ride is only a few hours over the sierra mountains again we get behind another freight train almost to a walking crawl. but by this time on our trip i am getting bored taking pictures out the train window but iam surprised to not find any snow in the mountains.
dead pine tree
so during our last lunch aboard amtrak while mary was chatting with another dinner across the way i drifted off watching this flower change color as the light changed.
table flower
but soon we are to arrive
rocks & trees
but none too soon for my taste we pull into our final train destination. martineze,ca.
martineze station
martineze station clock tower
how do we get to our motel. mary has the station manager call us a cab but along comes one named ‘the chosen one’ whom we hail. we feel lucky to have found him and arrange to have him pick us up in the morning and return us to the station for our three hour thruway bus ride.
by the sea
it seems like paradise after being cooped up in the train for almost to the hour a week. there wasn’t one train where everything worked, no lounge car had working restrooms and our last train from reno didn’t have a door that closed between cars and i wondered what it was like going through the 4 mile tunnel from denver, the train crew warns people not to travel between cars then. but our tunnels weren’t than long but still how do they keep these cars in service?
but here we are at least for a week before ending our trip on virgin america going home. what we came to do, get married happens on the day mary had wanted. monday we did a location scout to find our place and i think we did alright. it was a sunny afternoon when we started getting dressed and ready then the fog rolled in and we thought shi…. but just as soon as we started the ceremony the sun came back out warming us up and making for some pretty cool pictures.
wedding ceremony spot
that’s mendocino in the background and the ocean crashing on the rocks below. so now we are man and wife. who would have thought that 6 years ago this is the way it would turn out? hey you never know
outside our window
is life art or is art life? does it really matter?
reno, nv ; moving west but first another stop
November 7, 2010we are finally moving west towards our final destination. reno is our last stopover seeing mary’s friends and catching up on years long past. we were told the reno train station was in the middle of town and blocked traffic but we found that to not be true now. but there is a sense of frontier town still here. reno isn’t too big a city although it like every other american city it’s got it’s share of sprawl .
reno amtrak station
tracks
the amtrak tracks have been renovated with a project called ‘retrac’ and a display put in the old station of artifacts dug up during construction which shows shards of pottery, nails, pictures of fire cisterns adding to the wild west feel of the town. i enjoy perusing the displays waiting for our ride.
reno train station display
but now it’s all about gambling and we know how well that’s going with all this disposable income everyone has thanks to the republican austerity years. thinking about the money spent on this election as a big waste, makes me sick. i guess if i owned a tv station i’d feel different but i don’t.
train station window
i wonder where the balance to life has gone? we all seem to have fallen into fear, afraid our house, job, wife or even dog will turn on us and we will not be loved and cared for. i never thought i’d see these days here in this country, i blame the suits. they are the cause of all this turmoil and greed slowly strangling our society of the dreams we had in the 60’s & 70’s. i can only remember and not fully live them.
we are picked up at train station and whisked off to roses house where we drop our bags and head off to lake tahoe. nice to see the snow dusted mountains behind the city as we head up to the summit. mary and rose chat and i enjoy the scenery. crossing the summit we come to an overview of lake tahoe
lake tahoe
pretty cool but a bit chilly. then mary sees the size of the pine cones on the trees
pine tree
and thinks they’ll be cool to give to the ‘girls’ (grandchildren) so i go down the cliff and get one for mary. we then pick up two more for the ‘girls’ on the beach.
pine cones
there is a high class restaurant, meaning expensive place right on the beach with a gas fire pit and chairs which comes in handy warding off the autumn chilly. mary catches up on years past and my mind wanders looking out at the lake. we missed seeing any aspens in color in colorado by months but here are a couple, not really spectacular but nice anyways
aspen
aspens lake tahoe
and finally the dock.
dock at lake tahoe
now the expensive wine safe and sound deep in our bellies we head back to our lodgings at roses house.
all in all a very nice two day visit with people i’ve never met before, which has not always been comfortable for me, meeting new people. but as i age i seem to be more comfortable around strangers. life has a way of adding small changes helping us along. so in a couple of days we will continue our journey out to the coast getting closer to our final destination. we drop our pines cones at the post office lighting our load to continue our last leg of this adventure. another short train trip then overnight in a motel before finally catching our thruway bus to willits ca.
Granby to Reno
November 5, 2010Getting ready to move on to our next destination Reno, NV we wait at the Amtrak station for our two-hour delayed train. It seems there is always something happening to trains. The first delay we had was a two-hour delay from Chicago to Granby; we got stuck behind a freight train that had engine trouble. Seems freight has the right of way, that’s capitalism for you.
This happen again leaving Granby.
Granby waiting room
We were pleasantly surprised to receive a phone call from Amtrak in our inn informing us of a problem. Amtrak has a good web site and phone system keeping travelers up to date on schedules, their 1 800 USA Rail or status on the web. Very cool.
Good by Granby hello Reno.
train arriving
hopping a ride to reno
But soon enough our train came along and we were on our way to meeting mary’s friends in Reno. It had been a long time since they had seen each other, as they were part of mary’s camping and work group where people who worked together camped out on weekends at some country park.
We’ve been told the next leg through Utah would be one of the best scenic parts of the trip and it was pretty cool.
byers cynByers cyn
Byers cyn
It was nice for me to come along and meet all these different people in mary’s life, after all I was an important part of mary’s life now. This great American adventure had a purpose as we were on our way to be married in Mendocino, ca by mary’s best friend from collage.
My friends are scattered all across America and none along this route. We had originally planed to drive across America in our newly restored 1970 Mercury XR 7 convertible but that had been delayed by numerous events and delays. The car will be on the road soon but the time and weather just didn’t permit doing the trek at this time.
and this way we get to see a part of this great country without being exausted all the time. so we traveled through utah in a different mind set.
Ducks in Colorado river
canyon wall
Utah
Colorado river Utah
Mary had decided we’d get married on our anniversary; one so I might have a better time remembering when it was and two; it would be more romantic that way. I had no objections to what ever she wanted. That is a big part of our life being able to allow the other person to get what they want. Mary’s good at that and I am learning how to allow that to happen. This relationship is not all about me and that’s a good thing.
She has brought so much joy into my life and the idea of letting go, laying back and allowing her to have her way has brought me such joy, that had I been I charge I might have muddled with things and screwed things up. Allowing is a pretty good way of being. As I said it’s not all about me.
as night falls on our window it starts to rain
sunset in utah
rain drops on window
Reno is a strange town. We were told the train station was in the middle of town and the train actually blocked traffic but that wasn’t the case as they have renovated the train tracks and put up an exhibit in the station showing artifacts from wild west Reno, old bottles, shards of pottery and lots of pictures.
We were there during the election and one of the biggest fears is that Sharon Engels might be elected as a senator and it was really too close an election. Her message seemed to be electing someone ignorant of government role in our society and made it smaller, a popular position in this election, some have won office on that same platform. I wonder what has happen to ‘an informed elect’ that is the basis of our democracy. Oh well.
The only thing to see in Reno for me is Lake Tahoe. Rose took us for a drive up there and a glass of wine lakeside. A lovely sunny afternoon and I can see why people say it’s a jewel of the west. The rest of Reno evolves around the casinos and gambling. But mary’s friends are nice and we enjoy our couple of days of visiting, meeting the grown young women who were children when last seen. Life moves on. As we do, continuing along the tracks to Martinez, Ca our last train station, now switching to a bus up California way to Willits, ca gateway to the redwoods. Then being picked up and driven to Mendocino our final destination for our marriage.
That is the point of this whole trip. To be married by mary’s best friend who couldn’t come to what is now referred to as our ‘intent’ ceremony where we spoke our vows to love and cherish each other, done at the house in New Jersey in front of friends and family.
but more on reno lake tahoe later………….
sunrise and frost
November 4, 2010i wasn’t prepared to find fog rolling in over the lake and the car covered in frost as we woke up for the sunrise. the question is always do i just sit here and enjoy the moment or do i grab my camera and start snapping away. but i thought this moment i wanted to share so i woke mary and began a very long day. she started taking pics out our rooms window while i had to run down and start the car and turn on the heater then run back upstairs gather my camera . defrosting the windshield took awhile, but we got out of town in time to capture a couple of images before everything changed.
foggy grand lake, co
then looking south towards shadow lake
shadow lake,co
and then it’s all gone and coffee & hunger sets in, where to get a good cup of coffee and plan our day. we decide to go back into the park for another encounter with wildlife after a cup of coffee and a microwaved sausage and biscuit off we go to the park. this early morning we found the ground covered with frost as our car had been but no wildlife. we drove up a dirt hunters road where we had seen elk the day before and stoped to explore the area. oh well maybe we got a couple of christmas cards out of the effort.
frosty field
frost covered pine cones
then back to town and on to adams falls which feeds the grand lake. whoo hoo i though a powerful ice covered falls. it was easy enough to find and park at and the trail was too deep in snow but had been traveled well before us. what we didn’t know wa we were headed up to the top of adams falls and not the bottom. it really isn’t much to see, just another snow & ice covered rocky mountain stream but after the effort of walking up the mountain why not take some pictures. after all i had carried my tripod and telephoto lens along so what the heck.
adams falls, co
snow covered rocks
we both got some nice pictures of snow capped rocks and ice. shooting snow & ice isn’t easy as exposures can be tricky. but moving along the ridge line as other couples came alone we found ourselves moving back towards our car. hey what happened to the falls, we were hoping to see the bottom of the falls and not the parking lot. so we drove along the lake front until we ran into private property signs stopping us.
when on thinks of seeing a waterfall, at least i do, i think of seeing where the water falls i.e. the bottom like pictures of nigara falls. but sine there doesn’t seem to any dramatic pics of falls and lake what else to do? we there are hot sulphur springs close by so why not try there? off we go. when we get there what we find are a resort of sorts actually hot tubs of sulphur water and not very appealing to us. one long family in a exposed tub just didn’t feel like something we’d like to join. mary asked about something more natural but got a very vague answer about being up the road etc. oh well
we spent the rest of the day looking for gifts to bring back for the girls who are much easier than my son. they love everything at least for awhile. then diner at our hotel grand lake inn which we find is being sold by the owner to a nice couple from lubbock texas whom we have a talk about how we find accommodations on our travels. what is important to us i and how we search for things.
traveling is exhausting especially one such as this hauling bags on and off trains moving into different hotels trains and cars is a lot of work and it’s not over yet. so crawling into bed and snuggling comes early for us. being up for the sunrise isn’t usually my time of day since i’ve always worked nights. but another sunrise another day.
sunrise, grand lake, co
sunrise , grand lake , co
sunrise, grand lake, co
sunrise looking at shadow lake, co
well now we move on to reno, nv to visit marys friends, i’ve never been there so we’ll see what it’s like.
italy, our first travels
October 18, 2010after meeting mary and getting to know each other, sharing our wishes, fears and dreams she proposed we go to europe, italy as i remember. i had always wanted to travel the world without being in a uniform but never put it together. why do we always wait? how do we know what time we have left here?
we set a date and she cashed in some of her frequent flyer miles and got the tickets. we were all set.
in the meantime the Rolling Stones and Martin Scorsese had contracted the Beacon theater where i had just left for early retirement for a concert and movie Shine A Light and everyone i worked with said come back it’s going to be a big one, meaning everyone should made a lot of money. ‘But i am going to italy with mary’ i replied.
it did make me think about my work life, how i’d given up almost all my holidays and weekends to work. family events revolved around my work schedule. but not any more i had worked since i was 14 years old and it was time to stop and smell the flowers with Mary.
i’ve not regretted that decision one bit.
the other day i was looking for some tree images to enter into a contest and turned on a HD i seldom view with some of the italy images which i’ll share a couple here.
Colosseum cross
this is one of the first thing we see as we enter The Colosseum. it’s surrounded by people but i managed to get this shot off. this is really a pretty powerful place when one thinks about what happened here. who wandered these hallways and how long this place has withstood time
colosseum walls with sky
through all the earthquakes, bombings and bullet holes, but it has a dark history
the colosseum wall with cloud
who walked here through these hallways, were are the lions now, oh detroit.
The Colosseum Catacombs
access is limited where one can go, but i understand they’ve open up more areas than when we were there.
the colosseum catacombs
but i was looking for trees and the only thing growing here was grass
The Colosseum window
so i began to wander around looking for my usual………. this being more to my liking a stand of pine trees.
Colosseum window with pine trees
and of course here’s my honey smiling across the table at me during lunch. i wonder what she was thinking?
mary youtt
and silly me, yes i still have that shirt.
me
these images were taken with my canon 20d which has traveled with me and now remains as a back up camera to my 5d mll.
we did find some flowers later on the isle of Ischia in Sant’ Angelo italy, but my honey is still brighter
yellow orchid
i wanted to write about some new flash triggers but so far haven’t really tested them completely but so far i am really impressed.
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