Wednesday, October 27

Wish You Were... Hear?

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I'm wondering what comes between imagination and mumbling, "FINISHED!"

And I'm thinking that the crack between the two is where talent lives. "FINISHED!" is what you are capable of doing with what you imagine. Hmmm... do I mean 'talent' or do I mean skill? And where does creativity make its appearance? Suppose you can imagine a reslut but can't execute it.... reveal it. Or... or... is process where you actually discover the totality of your imagination? Hmmmm or its limits. Or...

Okay, my head's starting to burst....

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Took this on my bike ride last weekend not far from Willow Street. Now, Willow Street is not a street. It's a place outside of the City of Lancaster to the south east. Maybe six miles? And it's smack in the center of Amish country. And here's a piece of Amisher farm equipment that they tether to mules to work that field. Off to my right was a little red wagon filled with three Amish boys - who I could not picture because it simply not a nice thing to do. And the watched me, then waved as I biked off of their post card home place.


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GEEK STUFF: Canon G10. middle of the bright afternoon. PP with PS CS4, custom textures, Topaz and AlienSkin filters and personalized brushes.

Tuesday, October 26

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Visited Adamstown again. You probably know that it's the antique capital of this part of the country. There are scores of dealers, probably hundreds and many display their stuff in glass cases where central attendants hold the keys. Toys are particularly popular this time of year as retailers from NYC, Boston, Philly, Baltimore, Washington, and Atlanta shop for their holiday inventories. A lot of these smaller things are used for holiday decorations in Elizabethan buildings.

This one's the best part of a century old, they told me. So I thought I'd see what it told me so I can tell you. It's the fun of art to discover the subject's song as it emerges during the process.

Some Geek Stuff

Hand Held/florescent light
Canon 7D: ESF 17-85mm, ISO800, f4.6@1/8 - 30mm
PP/CS4: Topaz, Custom Filters and brushes.

Sunday, October 24

Fall Before The Fall

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This soon may be gone!

Rode my bike through the Pekway region of Lancaster County yesterday. Fall’s come onto the Amish farms.

Next month the EPA will begin enforcing rigorous standards here to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. Runoff from these farmland’s had an impact upon the Bay which people downstream claim is negative. Even though this is a record year for the heavily fished bay area, the pleasure boaters and fisher people have colluded with the Obama administration to impose draconian regulations upon the nation’s richest non-irrigated farmland here in Lancaster County.

The results may have the same impact that the EPA’s had upon the Central California Valley where in order to protect some odd species, they’ve shut off that area’s water supply almost entirely. The result? Ruined farmers, a greater dependency upon imports (from countries with no similar endangered species regulations}, and an increase in food prices which fall, of course, most dramatically upon the most fragile American families who are struggling to survive in this recession. I suppose those are the unintended consequences of well meaning people trying to do utopian stuff, huh?

So I’m making images before Lancaster County’s farmers, and urban areas are laid waste with EPA regs that will topple them into bankruptcy. Why the urban areas? Because they built water reclamation plants before the EPA was founded. Those operations do not meet the new standards. However, while the Federal government provided funds for communities which never built any treatment plants, it refuses to provide funds to upgrade the existing facilities (remember the Stimulus Bill and all of those never materialized shovel ready projects?).

Since every city in Pennsylvania is teetering upon insolvency as a result of other sorts of mandates imposed but not funded by the Pennsylvania state government, these waste treatment costs will probably be the last straw, creating ghost towns throughout what is the commonwealth’s most economically diverse and lowest unemployment region.

Go figger, huh?

Oh well, enjoy it before winter sets in….

Canon G10
Lancaster County, PA

Processing: Canon G10: 3 handheld wide angle images stitched together in PS/CS4: AlienSkin/SnapArt, Topaz, custom brushes.

PART TWO

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And thirty miles or so south of that image up top there was this one taken last week at a friend's house overlooking the river meeting the tidal waters of The Chesapeake Bay. Here's on the shore of Northeast, Maryland we're watching the runoff of centuries of Yankee farming flowing into the headwater's of the American South's most treasured Atlantic Coast bay. And here they're arguing that the tons of fertilizer and animal droppings carried by the river system have changed the very nature of their life.

Once again this is PS/CS4 stitching together six handheld Canon G10 images taken with its widest angle at ISO 600 as the sun set. I used Topaz to additionally enhance the dynamic range.

Friday, October 15

Show Poster

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I've been invited to do two shows: one at a gallery, another in a grand public mansion.

Frankly, I dunno if I have another show in me. It is so much work. And they are expensive. I figure I'll need at least twenty prints carefully mounted and probably framed. And perhaps one or two will have to be of a large size. And for what? It was a terrific ego trip to do my last show a couple of years ago. And there were hundreds of people who passed through. Lots of them were friends who were previously unaware of my closet interest in photographic imagery. But, I'm not a professional. I make very little money from my work. I've not submitted to Canon's annual in the past two years. And as you can see from this blog, I've cut back my posting to about six a month or so. Oh, I've got a lot of images I haven't posted in a private stash. But overall, my art is an escape from the rewarding work I do in my day job.

Sooo.... to show or not to show? Or is this blogsite that's viewed by hundreds of people a month enough of a show? Heck, I still haven't repaired all the damage to this site caused by Apple's cancelation of my website service (see Rotten Apple in the column up there on the right for an explanation).

The larger show could be as early as December, but I don't think I want to rush all of that work in the next four or so weeks. Suggestions anyone?

ON THE OTHER HAND....

I am almost out of business cards for this blogsite. Maybe instead of poster for a show, this might make a useful image, full-bleed, for that card? Again, thoughts?

Friday, October 8

The Legate Abruptly Returned

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No one expected him so swiftly. No… the Pope imagined his envoy would require years to subtly study the curious beings on their exotic world.

Yet here he came to the Door of Time’s Tunnel. And curiously this legate who moved always midst a whirl of attendants returned… alone.

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Castel Gandolfo, Italy. Canon 40D. PS/CS4. Alien Skin:Bokeh. Custom brushes/textures.

Wednesday, October 6

Ben Again

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I started with a clear idea of how I wanted to present Benjamin. Every now and then you hear an author claim that the characters took over the story. And that's what happened here. Benjamin decided that this is the he way wanted me to present him. No, I don't mean the boy who stood in front of that flag. Nope, I mean the character Ben in this image. As the process developed, this is the story arc we mounted. So much of art emerges in the process, huh?

Enjoy....

Saturday, October 2

Restoration • YEA!

As you know (or can find out by clicking upon "Rotten Apple Explained" on the right-hand sidebar. See it?) a massive number of my blog's images were deleted as a result of the caprice of Apple, Inc. Sigh. Well anyway... I'm slowly but surely restoring hundreds and hundreds of postings and doing it by portfolios. So... I hope that you'll visit them as the come back on line by clicking on the appropriate portfolio there on the right-hand sidebar as they appear.

It's a lot of work gang! And I will really be in your debt if you'll visit some of them and let me know if all is coming into place? And of course, new comments on particular postings will especially warm my heart.

Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks... Thanks...

Ted

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FALL COMES TO EAST DENNIS


THERE'S A PROBLEM
WITH FALL
IT LACKS
A HAPPY ENDING....