Friday, November 21, 2014

As I've written, the beach is just a 20 minute drive from where I live.  Unlike the New Jersey or New York seashores, access is unfettered by fees, windshield stickers, or "No Parking" signs except in some exclusive residential areas.  In fact, Jacksonville Beach has free parking lots with porta-potties.   So, to not take advantage of what's there is to really waste an opportunity.  Rather than go to the gym today,  I walked on the beach below.  I didn't realize how strong and steady the breeze was until I turned around to go back.  Yikes!    (digital)




Since posting this in color, I was curious to see it in monochrome.  In Photoshop Elements 11 it was simple to extract the chroma, futz with highlights, midtones, shadows, contrast and brightness with the following effect.  Better?  Not really....just different.




Thursday, November 20, 2014

The area of Jacksonville where I live has quite a few corporate parks.  They're landscaped to a fare thee well, but not very interesting to photograph (and...I've tried...a lot!) as the design isn't from nature, but from an architect.  All the housing and corporate developments built in the last several decades are required to include retention ponds to compensate for the acres covered by buildings and pavement.  The effect is nicely verdant with trees, shrubs and ponds, but not visually compelling.  This little tree was difficult to isolate, and it's the best I could do with it.  (film)



Tuesday, November 18, 2014

It's been a while since I visited Kingsley Plantation.  I wanted to wait until the light was different than it had been last spring and early summer.   It's now more oblique, and casts shadows that weren't possible when directly overhead.  There's much more visible texture now, and forms are better defined as well.  These were taken somewhere close to noon, and I want to go back at an earlier hour for even more oblique light.  It is my intention to make as many images as I can, and then choose twenty or so of the best.  So, there may be repetitions in the meantime!  (film)



 




Monday, November 10, 2014

I've not gone to the ocean for a while...stupid, really, because it's only 20 minutes away, and it's always different and always a pleasure.  So, I thought I'd take my mountain bike to the beach and ride it there on Friday instead of going to the YMCA gym.  When the tide is out, there is a lot of packed wet sand that's perfect for biking, and the knobby tires and rear fender are great for traction and avoiding splashed butt syndrome.  I rode a good long distance and came across the posts I photographed below.  I hadn't known they were there until that ride, and was eager to return with the camera the next day.  Here's one from that second visit.  (film)





Sunday, November 2, 2014

I don't think I've ever included an acknowledgement of another photographer's work here.  But, hey...it's my blog, and I shouldn't feel restricted as to what I post, so here's something different.

 I have at least five books of Michael Kenna's work, two retrospectives, one anthology, and two monographs of singular subjects.  France is the most generous and sumptuous monograph I've collected by any photographer.  Knowing his work from these books, I've concluded that Kenna's so-called minimalist, long exposure images are just one segment of  his overall body of work.  The majority of the photographs are just superbly composed and interesting images of subjects that are a pleasure to look at.  (In fact, the long exposure minimalist images do not appeal to me with nearly the power as the rest.)

As I've written before, I am utterly disgusted by what passes for contemporary 'art' photography.  It's boring, careless, and poorly crafted in every sense.  It should be an embarrassment to those who champion it, but they're intent on proffering what hasn't been seen before even though it likely wasn't worth seeing in the first place. But, it's new! And...there are legions of visually illiterate viewers who will follow anyone that appears to be an authority no matter how flimsy their credentials and background. 

I am a classical musician, and have the utmost respect for excellent intonation, tonal purity, beautiful sound, and expressive interpretation.  Kenna meets parallel visual standards with supreme virtuosity.

 (digital, and with a tripod! lol)