You can read it here, and please comment if it resonates at all with you!

Beautiful light these days...when it isn't raining. It's hunting season out here, and I walked the land to post it. My main concern is that we are so far out, hunters may not even realize they are coming close to an occupied house. The recent loud booms nearby have become less frequent, so maybe it's working. 

I was told years ago that my images looked like 'calendar shots'. I took this to be a compliment...until I realized it wasn't. I had a very good customer, Paul Rezendes, who made a fine living shooting color landscape calendars with a 4x5 camera, thank you very much. But I do concede the point. Without a person or other conflicting element, landscapes can be just eye-candy for the wall to be glanced at and dismissed.

​Even the minor drama of the wonderful fall light makes this one work for me. Not fine art, but fun.

I've always owned one or more full-sized [and full featured] cameras, and at least one smaller camera for casual use. Actually for quite a while I had a 4x5 outfit, a 6x6 twin lens, a couple of 6x6 and 6x7 SLR kits, a full 35mm SLR outfit, and then a couple of pocket 35s. Wow.

These days I keep a couple favorite film cameras in the safe for sentimental reasons, but shoot with [much to my surprise] just one DSLR kit and a smaller compact zoom. I'll rent a second DSLR body for important jobs, but that's it. Wow again.

With all of the great advancements in technology we now have compact cameras with capabilities far surpassing their earlier film-era cousins. These advancements, along with my diminishing role in photography, has had me contemplating a day when one compact zoom camera would be all I need. Downsizing and having one camera fill all my needs just seems so efficient, right?

And I'm thinking forward to future photo opportunities...that long-planned trip to Paris for instance, now with the little guy tagging along. Back in the day I'd have schlepped along a full Hasselblad kit. Ridiculous I know, but I've seen me do it! Not anymore...when I think about that trip now all I'm weighted down with is a compact.

So is it time to fire up eBay and get rid of the heavy iron? Well, the photo above was taken with a 400mm lens and then cropped in closer to a 600mm effective angle of view. It was captured on a full-frame, 50mp sensor DSLR that allowed for both mounting a lens of that length, and cropping with no loss of image quality. The compact camera still doesn't exist that can do this. 

So, while I'll no doubt miss the big camera's capability a few times in exotic lands, it looks like both of my systems are safe. At least two systems do the trick...no more need for a third or fourth!

Lots of conversations and thinking, lately, about the artistic value of making photographic [giclée, inkjet, etc.] prints in this era. This got me thinking about the concept of posterity, longevity, mortality, and mayonnaise ice cream.

Ok, not so much the ice cream, although I do have some pointed concerns there too.

So now that practically everything we create is electronic [and we create A LOT these days], what is going to happen when either the internet goes down [apocalyptic scenario], my domain registration expires [realistic scenario], or 'things' simply change in a fundamental way? [hey, the only constant is change]

Huh.

Used to be that to survive for centuries your creative work needed to be either chiseled into stone, carved into clay, or painted on something. What to do with our pixels?

I want to say 'this is why I make prints', but that's not true. I make prints because I still really appreciate a good print. To me a print is the one and only final product of the photographic process.

But, happy accident, these prints of mine in boxes and frames are the only images that have any chance of surviving me.

I'd like to think someone will enjoy a few of them someday.

​I'll never know.

Camping in the RV on Somes Sound. What fun

Found ourselves in lovely Peru over the weekend for a family wedding. Beautiful area that I'd only passed through previously. This is early morning on Worthly Pond, and it's 'worth' the visit [hahahahaha. ahem.] 

Afterwards we took the RV over to Bar Harbor, and camped right next to Somes Sound. First time camping for the boy, so really fun just to watch his face as he took it all in. More images from that experience later.

I have a new post up on dearsusan.net today. I so enjoy the engagement with other photographers that this platform offers. And, I tend to learn a lot as well.

For instance I've long been considering a move from Adobe's Lightroom product to Capture One [due mainly to the former's move to a subscription-only model.]

By all accounts C1 is a superior RAW converter, and as such the move should be a no-brainer. But of course nothing is ever that simple. Simply learning the new interface and workflow is daunting enough. Add to that the inevitable 'it does this better, but this other thing not as well', and it's understandable why so many of us who 'want' to make the switch have put it off. 

I, for one, was going to wait for the next new hard drive. That's when I'll be forced to make the commitment in one direction or another. But that's a stressful time already, isn't it? No time to be learning a complicated new software along with all the other issues and upgrades. Ugh. 

Little boy loves the moon...watches for it every night. Yesterday he found it round and orange, and if I don't miss my guess next to Venus. I watched it with him for a while before realizing that I needed to get dressed, run to the office to put together a camera bag and tripod*, and hike out to the cliff.

This is a 30sec exposure which allowed the surf to glow against the rocks. I intentionally packed an older wide angle zoom lens [the oft mentioned ca. 1995 Canon 20-35mm f2.8L], which was not the most optically perfect choice. I did this because it was a stop faster than the other obvious choices** and also perhaps just to be contrary, as Canon has all but denied paternity of the lens....there is barely a mention of the lens in company literature, absolutely no support, and no available profiles in Lightroom. 'My little bastard', I call him. ;)

I played around with ISO and aperture a bit during the brief shoot. This one was taken at f5.6 which produced the nice diffraction star around the moon. The ISO was 800 which is most decidedly not the strong suit of my 5DS which shines at 100. There's just a bit of noise, but it could probably be tamed down a bit more.

I won't deny for a moment that I approach photography from a technical and equipment-centric point of view. I used to own a film lab and camera stores...without this 'focus' [hahaha] I wouldn't have gone where I did. 
​
This is just one of the ways that I differ greatly from my neighbor John Paul Caponigro. In his talk here it's directly pointed out in case you missed it that you won't hear any discussion of camera brands or f-stops from him, and instead will receive a very well thought out, even cerebral, discussion of art and intention. 

My approach is very much rooted in 'pre-visualization' a lá Minor White all the way back from the lens to the sensor/film and post-production/developer and on to the print.. What can I say. Gear matters to me, from winches on a sailboat to the Michelin snows I run year-round on the SUV here in the woods. Cause and effect. Form follows function. It's a mind-set...one that I enjoy.

Your mileage may vary. Buckle up.

*  With fond memories of friend Chris Warman...his old Gitzo and R.No.1 head are my go-to for these excursions.
** From my slim collection those would be the Canon 16-35mm f4L which would have been better optically and will go along next time, and the Voigtlander 20mm f3.5II which I sold during a purge thinking I'd someday buy a 24mm f1.4, but didn't. ;)

Oddly enough I enjoy driving around the rural parts of Maine...and keep in mind that most of of the state qualifies.
There is just something so real and honest about both the landscape and the people. Don't get me wrong...it can be bleak in a way that a lot of areas are these days...but it's familiar.
Traveled to the western woods with my father-in-law the other day to look at a mower. Pretty memorable experience.
And, as you can see, camo was the uniform of the day.
Glad I had the Leica along for the ride.