Not much time for photography today, having been in Mexico on a client project for the last three days. I need to get caught up on my other projects as well as juggle a potential project that came up in Mexico. Since I was not sure of the logistics in Mexico for this weeks trip, no camera, no photographs, but a bunch of looking and loading the carbon based memory bank (translation, my brain) with potential images. I may be back again;- )
Best regards, Doug
I am going to make this short, as I am trying to get my web site as well as some other stuff ready so that I can do a one day turbo blast day next Monday at the Palm Springs Photo Festival. So far, it appears that Larry Vogel and his wife Barbara will be there and if Miguel Garcia-Guzman is on the mend enough, he will try to make it also. So Monday I will drive in early in the morning, get some breakfast, sign up for some reviews, go see the vendors, do some review networking, get a ‘luster’ print made of one of my images and think, yikes I gotta convert from matte paper and now I need a new printer!, stay for the afternoon roundtable discussion, get some dinner and then truck back to O.C. Whew!!
So now you know why this is brief;- )
Best regards, Doug
This image that I made of the three men crossing the street in PingHu may not be part of my series I’m Just Looking (Wo Zhi Kankan). It is a picture about them looking (and of course, me looking at them doing the looking). I can not put my finger on what it is about this image that keeps pulling me back into it.
I am continuing to muddle over the comments regarding Contemporary Landscape Photography and the idea of appearing neutral in the presentation of the visual facts. And perhaps what it means to be objective. Taking this from a different mental perspective may help me, that is, what is a Great Landscape Photograph? I think that the use of the work ‘Contemporary’ may be bringing too much mental/emotional baggage along with it.
I have not seen anyone else mention this, but Brooks Jensen in the recent issue of LensWork (No. 75 Mar-April 2008) announced that this was the last issue of the magazine that will be available for purchase in bookstores. From here on out, you will obtain your copies of LensWork either by subscription or single issue purchase before the subscription issues are mailed out.
So if you have been a magazine rack buyer of LensWork and you like this publication, you will need to become a subscriber to continue your reading and viewing enjoyment.
Brooks cites the amount of waste in the retail distribution channels (70% of magazines on the rack do not get sold, although LensWork does better than that), which translates to big waste of our natural resources.
So it will be interesting to see if this change in publishing strategies will ensure the on-going life of this magazine. Perhaps the new workshop series that they are starting will help continue their momentum. As a LensWork alumni, I wish them well and continued success;- )
Best regards, Doug
This is the part that drives me crazy. Just makes me a fruitcake! (which is dangerous to say when you live in Southern California). I come up with a great idea for a series. In this case, Wo Zhi Kankan (I’m Just Looking) a great phrase I found in my Mandrian language training book.
One of the responses to the question, “what makes a Contemporary Landscape Photography?”, was the need for it to be viewed as ’objective’. I think that objectivity is what we want from a judge, to be detached from the proceedings and ensure no bias. Which is a good thing for the courts, but I am not so sure about photography. So this idea has been something that I have been wrestling with more so for the last couple of days.
First, don’t expect me to define what Contemporary Landscape Photography is in this post;- )
But when I saw the question asked by Miguel on Exposure Compensation (note: I just added the link, I know, bad blogger, bad blogger) regarding what constitutes Contemporary Great Portrait Photography, it started that kernel of thinking as to how does that same question (and maybe answers) for Contemporary Landscape Photography? (more…)
Since my visit to China, and specifically here in PingHu, was very brief, very much a cultural snapshot, a brief slice of time. Thus, I was unable to tell by looking at this family owned business, which came first, the development of the industrial park, or were they just lucky that the government did not allow their small factory to be demolished with the development of the industrial park??
While wandering around in this new industrial complex that was recently built in PingHu, I found this room. It was a large room in size, not neccessarily in height, part of a clean room area for future medical device assembly. The Chinese have a number of windows in their facilities, but they are usually masked with an opacque treatment, frequently white, blue or some odd combination. In this facility, they liked green floors, which also provided interesting reflections.
A window that you can not see out of and the reflection of the window on both the floor and the ceiling that were distorted. Odd and intersting combinations.
and what are these symbolic of??
and does it matter??
Best regards, Doug
