Catwalk

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High fashion model does the catwalk. Fashion Rocks!

Character

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The father of fine art photography, Alfred Stieglitz, once wrote a letter of rejection to a woman hoping for a show in his famous Little Gallery, "(This gallery) is devoted to ideas. And I feel that your work, good as it is, is primarily picture making. That is not adding to the idea of photography, nor to the idea of expression. And for that reason it would be out of place in the Little Gallery." Stieglitz felt that his greatest work was "teaching the value of seeing. And teaching the meaning of seeing."

Ike Johnson is decent. Once, when the word had meaning, he'd have been called a gentleman. Now, instead of calling him any of those things... I wanted to distill them out in today's posting. But... but... but...

The problem with photography is that it is too easy. Cheap representationalism - is what critics have called it. As photographers first grow serious, they go off in search of the Holy Gear. They want a mystical machine which will spin their straw into gold. Following the gear-head stage, photographers bury themselves in the mechanics of composition, palette, and form. They master a litmus test which focuses on the picture to the almost total exclusion of its content.

It's the Stieglitz Stage which follows for those few who burst through to an understanding that nature has its rules, and so to does photography - and it's the photographic rules which image makers must impose upon nature. How they do it... and what they convey to viewers - how they manipulate meaning to communicate an idea - that's ultimately what differentiates photographic craft from art.

Problem is, the bulk of viewers want to stay at stage two. They're not sensitive to ideas as much as they are to form. I am seduced by the idea. But like everyone else, I'd like visitors to like me. So... how to combine form with idea? At least enough so that people may still murmur, "Wow!", even as they go, "Hmmm....".

GEEK STUFF: Canon EOS 20D, Canon EFS 17-85mm (f4-5.6), 1/8 at f/5.6, ISO:800, Exposure Bias Value -1, Focal length: 72mm, Time 7:28 pm, flash: off, Metering Mode: Average, Camera Raw.

Floating By Ted

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Upon a time I did sports photography. Long enough to realize how hard it is. Long enough to make some money at it. Long enough to realize how good the best craft-sports artists were. How much astonishing work it would take to approach what they did on their worst days. So I stopped doing that. See, you not only have to want to take good sports pictures... you have to love sports. Understand them the way a jazz musician understands scales. Whoa... that is so wonderful when you see it. So I learned enough to become a very satisfied spectator of, not so much sports, but great sports photographers.

Still, every now and then an easy shot floats by. And I'm so very pleased that I can sometimes make my camera sing like that jazz guy does with his horn. When you take a terrific image, of magnificent athletes... for an instant you appreciate them even more. And in my case, it's nice to know that my muscle memory still recalls all of those thousands of sports shots I took ... upon a time. And lets me do this - when two guys do this.

Life is good.

Roswell 1947-2007 & More NEWS!!

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Sixty years ago some debris was recovered in the New Mexico desert just outside of the tiny hamlet of Roswell. Rumor has it that a top secret site called Area 61 contains those findings. But a convoy of large army trucks was spotted barreling through the night just a week after whatever happened there... and it lumbered northwest toward a meeting with the east bound freight line in Albuquerque.
And this hidden spot, deep within the walls of an abandoned decaying industrial Lancaster courtyard sits about one hundred yards from the great East-West rail trunk which joined Washington, DC to the western American frontier. Hmmmm.... what was this thing? What did, or does it contain? Whatever it is or was... the shape seems somehow familiar, eh?

AND MORE BREAKING NEWS!!!

More sizzling stuff! You'll recall that last Wednesday I told you that the Canon Digital Photography Forums accepted one of my submissions to include in an upcoming book in the Transportation Category. And last night I learned that a second image of mine also won acceptance in the very competitive Travel & Landscape Category. Now that was really hot stuff. If I made too big a deal, um, sorry but hey - there were submissions from all over the world. It felt cool. So now it moves from cool to HOT! I have been informed that a THIRD... A THIRD of my submissions has been accepted for the book in the Sports Category! Son of a gun! You can see the original post of this image by clicking here.

I took the shot that underpinned this graphic toward the end of the Lancaster Barnstormer's 2006 championship season with my Canon 20D and the Canon EFS 17-85mm (f4-5.6). It is a montage. The sun actually sets over center-left field but somehow this works better, no? At the moment it looks as if this is not only an accepted image but tentatively it could be the full page signature piece to introduce the sports section of the book. Of course they'll make the ultimate decision when they get the final image and see how it prints, but I'm encouraged by their early remarks.

And that's not all, I'm awaiting final word - but I may have even more exciting news to announce this weekend. Hey... all things considered, not such a ratty Friday The Thirteenth, eh?

Christmas Cow

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Forget your reindeer... Forget red noses. Here'ze a red cow. Hey! Y'godda' problem widdat?

Merry, happy, and blissful - Christmas everybody.

Ted

Barnstormers Fleeing?

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From way back there, sometimes it's hard to figger out what's going on. Like suppose this lad thought that all the guys who made his team the league champs... Suppose it seemed that way off in the distance those giants were... were leaving. No... Hey! Suppose they left? Suppose the general manager, the coach, the marketing director, and the corporate sales directors all quit. Well, hey... that'd be some story, huh?

And suppose that none of the Lancaster newspapers, TV or radio stations reported why every important executive abruptly quit right after the new Barnstormer baseball team won its division and league titles! Well, that'd sure leave this little fella down, right? It'd seem as if there was some sort of astonishing cover-up going on. If only he could see better. If only the rest of us could, maybe we'd know what the hell was going on, eh? WHY THE HELL DID EVERY ONE OF THEM QUIT? At Christmas time, izzat the best present to give to little Bleacher Boy?

Harvest Moon

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First off, I shoulda' mentioned that the Lancaster Barnstormers first won their division and then won the Atlantic League Championship. They grabbed everything while I was up at The Cape. Lancaster county is very happy. Oddly, there were nincompoops that thought baseball wouldn't work in Lancaster. In fact, a politician from a township bodering on the city lost his job because he championed a ballpark there. Now it's up in the city, thousands and thousands of people come almost every night that they play, and life is nice.
It's a shame about the nincompoops. They have now turned their opposition against a convention center for the city which is in the heart of Amish Country. The nincompoops can't imagine how any organization would want to have its conventions here midst the gentle rolling hills of one of the prettiest historic places in America. They can't imagine how a grand new hotel and a convention facility could lure professional and commercial associations with headquarters in Philly, NYC, Baltimore or D.C. – places that are a morning's drive away, but just far enough away to ward off the commuters. Cylo the Barnstormer's cow likes to moon the visiting team. It'd be cool, during harvest season, if she'd moon our nincompoops. It'd give 'em something to imagine.

Outta' Here!

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I'm away until October 7th. Taking a vacation on Cape Cod. Pity I won't be around to see the Championship Series. Yep, the Lancaster Barnstomers clinched the Division Title and the Atlantic League series starts tonight, I think. Big Time in Lancaster. The kids play their hearts out, they're evenly matched and our new Clipper Stadium's a joy.

I think of the baseball experience a lot like other guys thing about a lake. They'll sit staring at it for hours and recharge themselves from the solace that laps at the shore. I get that kind of recharge from peering out at that beautiful diamond, see the players hustle around, eat the ballpark food, drink some beer, and laugh with friends. It might get better than that, but not often. Oh yea... Speakin' of "Outta' Here!".... Well then there's Cylo...

Here's my take in this season's baseball experience... It'd be cool to read what you think...

Ted On Baseball

Have a great week.... Go Stormers, er... Barnies... Wuddever... Just "GO!"

Raucus

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Cylo's a cow. She's the Lancaster Barnstormer's mascot. Problem with Cylo, is a lot like the problem with most of us... Just too laid back and mellow. You know what I'm sayin' here?

Incidentally, Cylo and her Barnstormers are in their second year. And they've made the league playoffs. Wonder what they'll do for an encore in 2007?

Enjoy... Lots of rules broken for this image. But Cylo's a gal who makes you want to break some rules. Won't make any sense posting the data for this thing. I used my wide angle lens. The ISO was in the 400 range. Beyond that... you guess, and you'll probably be correct.

On Leaping

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Too corny? I came upon these strangers at the ballpark Friday night. Son was up on a trash can where he'd been peering through the netting at the game. And Daddy asked him to leap. Then there was that look.

How many times, or places will things make you want to leap? Or at least not care about leaping? When's the last time you just turned when asked, and leapt? Can you imagine the absolutely safest leap possible? The one you've not only made, but you'd do it right now? Where you'd turn and just... fly? As I peered through that lens, for just the teeniest moment... I think I got a look on my face... like his. And sort of wished my Dad could put his hands out... just one more time.

The boy giggled. And leapt.

Friday, 9/22/06-8:07 pm:Canon EOS 20D, Meter Mode Auto,Exposure Program: Shutter Priority, ISO 1600, Lens Canon EFS 17-85, Focal Length 38 mm, Exposure Bias:-0.33, RAW

Award Winner 2006: GrannyBall

Note: Accepted as one of the world's finest Sports Images of 2006 for Canon POTN Book published in the Fall of 2007.

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Why is the sunset such a harsh metaphor for finality? Most species come alive at night. I wonder if cheetahs, when they evolve into sentient beings, will see resolution in the sunrise? For that matter, semi-sentient beings like Paris Hilton, probably greet the sunrise with dread. Hmmmm….. Speaking of metaphors… never noticed that similarity between Hilton and vampires before… But I digress.

There are summer-folk who celebrate the sunset. By the oceans, people hold parties and applaud the solar show as the globe turns colors and splashes into the sea. But Lancaster is an inland city. We lack the gorgeous reflective options of setting sun upon water that artists have captured. So, what to do? Where to find a vista? Is the ball park a scenic? Are people an even stronger setting than undulating waves to reinforce the finality of a day’s end? Or the rising of night?

Meta: (Lancaster, 8-12-06) Canon EOS 20D, RGB color, EF-S 10-22mm, 20mm, ISO 400, 1/100 at f/7.1