Wayne Simpson

©Wayne Simpson

I chose this image because it bridges the gap between my early childhood and the present day. This image was taken on the Kettle Point Reserve in Ontario. I lived there for the first eight or nine years of my life before leaving the reserve to live with my Father. I have very few memories of this place, but somehow when I was standing there I felt at peace. I felt a certain connection to my childhood and was able to capture what I was feeling in this photograph. For a long time I have struggled with my lack of memory of this part of my life, but somehow this photo brings back feelings that have been lost for a long time. With this photo I have bridged the gap of time and re-connected with my past and for that reason it is my favourite photo yet.

Adventures of Wallace and Angus:  Episode 2

Angus enjoying a blustery Christmas day.

©Darwin Wiggett - My Breakfast shot with the Canon G11

After finishing my Christmas orange and sipping on coffee, I noticed that the orange peels looked great on the blue paper that wrapped the orange. The soft window light was perfect to capture a detailed texture shot. I whipped out the G11 between sips of coffee and had a portrait of the residue of my breakfast!

©Darwin Wiggett - Canon G9

Merry Christmas!

This is the last of my Sept 11, 2009 images from Yellowknife that I will post. I picked this one for today because the colours (red and green) feel very Christmasy. Peace to all. Darwin

It was Barthes who raised doubt about the photograph as ‘a-thing-out-there’ -

“a photograph is always invisible: it is not it that we see…”

What is it that you are actually seeing when you look at a photograph?  And is the experience one in which metaphor operates?   Is the photograph a metaphor, a mirror, a window, a ’selection that changes ‘reality’ ‘ – or all of these?

I suspected that photographs can’t be metaphors, or if they can they are different to say metaphor in poetry.  Does the difference lie in the fact that our appreciation is language-dependent when encountering images as well as when hearing or reading a poem?

I wonder if all photographs are simply the evidence of the looking that another human being did – no more, no less?  Is that the bed-rock fact upon which to build our theory of reading a photograph and determining its worth/

As such the act of looking at/reading another person’s photograph’s is an act, more or less successful, of empathic or compassionate understanding.  Instead of walking in another person’s moccasins we are looking with another’s eyes.  No more no less?  I am partly motivated by the feeling that the theory of art photography is becoming impossibly complicated.

In searching ‘are photographs metaphorical?’ I immediately came across an article by Jane Ford about the contemporary photographer William Wylie HERE

Jane Ford’s article opens with;

Unititled, 2000.
Photo by William Wylie.

Making a photograph is symbolic. It is a representation, and in that, it stands for something,” William Wylie said. “The picture you create is not the same as the thing you photographed.

“I want the reverberation of the photograph, as an image of a subject that matters, to expand out to all aspects of our feelings and experience.”

In his work, Wylie focuses on themes and issues of landscape and place. His recent book, “RiverWalk: Explorations Along the Cache la Poudre River,” documents the last undammed river in Colorado. For more than four years Wylie chronicled the changing light along the 150-mile river, which runs from the Continental Divide to the Missouri River. At one point he spent 12 days hiking the entire river with his tripod and camera searching out and photographing areas that are often overlooked by the casual observer. The opening of Jane Ford’s article HERE

The phrase that leaps out to me is the last undammed river in Colorado. It is like the story of the death of the last wolf.  Who is damned in the damming?  Where will nature flow? etc.

William Wylie is also a member of the art faculty at the University of Virginia.  His portfolio is HERE

This is a photograph from Wylie’s series Stillwater;

Copyright William Wylie

I guess for the purposes of this appreciative article the words ‘rock, water, light, flow’ came to mind.  But, had I ’switched off’ left-brain thinking, could I just have sensuously luxuriated in the feel of the light on the water, and the feeling of mega-powerful mass from the water?   And the strength of the rock in parting the water and maintaining its integrity – though eventually it will crumble.  The tonal-mass of the water reminds me of Roni Horn’s photographs of the River Thames and Joshua Cooper’s photographs of water.  (So what?)

I chose the photograph because of its simplicity and because it is so evocative of many readings of Japanese and Chinese, and Western, statements about human experience and the metaphor and archetypes of those philosophies.  A couple of examples of language-dependent metaphors, that inevitably condition the eyes with which I/we read a photograph, will suffice for now.

My two favourite haiku;

Shiki, Masaoka. (1867-1902).

The summer river:
although there is a bridge, my horse
goes through the water.

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A lightning flash:
between the forest trees
I have seen water.

Or the famous saying by Heraclitus; You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you. ( It seems he said many other wise and beautiful things relevant to al the themes raised here, such as; Eternity is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child.)

For me, iceberg-like, metaphor is one-tenth common understanding – this is ‘a rock and a river’ – boom-boom, it is named.  But the 9/10 below the surface is the subjectvity operating from the infinite particularity of each person’s life-experience.

But perhaps in the case of (art) photographs the position is reversed. The ‘infinite mystery of particularity’ is what is immediate.  Photographs are not bits of the world, they are windows through which to cast light around the inner cave of being.  In which case photographs are very powerfully metaphorical – or at least they are triggers in the making of metaphorical meaning.

More spiritually each image is a gateway to the Infinite – some photographers create better gateways than others.

We are language-dependent, and culturally-dependent in our reading of photographs. It is a vast sea of largely unconscious language-knowledge that is evoked by an image. Sad-to-say we could not read fine photography without language-based cultural consciousness.

The key question is not Where is photography going?’ but ‘What changes are taking place in the activation of human consciousness as we encounter photographs now at the end of the 21st century’s first decade?’

Do we have to have a newer, better support language to prevent an impossible labyrinth of critical theory.? If art is confused and confusing is it not because of the talents of young artists but because of the non-sense and lack  of common-sense clarity by those who create the critical context in which artists function.  My ’safe harbour’ is always re-newing our basic humanity.  We always were, are and will be creatures defined by our caring, our creativity and our criticality – experienced in various forms of community.

That is also my answer to those post-modernists who say there is no grand theory anymore.  Yes there is, and it is the same as its always been – its the story and grand theory of being human – in the world – with others.

-0-

Over Thanksgiving Keith and I got word of a midnight sales event at the Philadelphia outlets (not far from where we were staying with his parents in PA)… I thought it would be a neat thing to try and do some night photography and capture the very serious shopping going on — it was, after all, a Black Friday sale.  So we drove out there at about 11:30pm and walked around.  It was odd– the crowds were big, the sales were (some of them) pretty good, and it all seemed disappointingly  very normal.  We stayed until 3:30 am and it felt like 6pm somehow.  It was difficult to get the sort of shots I had hoped for -  honestly i was hoping to capture people elbowing eachother in vicious competition for on-sale items)– but I did get some images I like. Everyone was very nice and patient.  The only thing out of the ordinary was the time of day and the fact that there were long lines to get into some of the more popular outlets.

Note below the smoky stuff (what is that stuff? vapor?) which is coming from a nearby nuclear power plant.

This is a short series I produced while on Thankgiving break… On the way from picking us up at the Philadelphia station, my mother-in-law needed to stop and pick up a few things for the big feast… It was a beautifully foggy night and I knew as soon as we pulled into the parking lot that I would much prefer to walk around outside and make some photographs rather than go in and browse the tofurkey selections!  This is one of those monstrous new supermarkets that sits in the middle of a pre-planned shopping center designed to create the illusion of an actual town– complete with sidewalks, fake phonebooths and benches,etc.  The supermarket is gigantic– wide-aisled, etc.. and the only part of the ‘village’ that is complete.  I would have liked to go back during the day and photograph the rest of the complex in mid-construction but of course we were only there for thanksgiving and there was no time for such shenanigans.  Perhaps over the Christmas break i will have an opportunity to shoot the rest of this place– though i would be suprised if i didn’t get kicked out just for taking pictures.  It is, after all, private property — though it is masquerading as ‘public space’.

I found a new podcast cast! Its call Thoughts On Photography. Covers how to get into a gallery, fine art photography, interviews with photographers and much more.

http://www.thoughtsonphotography.com/

Sunrise over Lake Winnipeg.  Loni Beach, Gimli, Manitoba.

©Darwin Wiggett - Canon G9

Here is another abstract photo from the Giant Mines of Yellowknife NWT. I just love the colours of the derelict machines blistered in the northern light. everywhere I looked photos asked to be taken. You gotta love it when those days happen.

Old Faithful is a very faithful showcase of the Lord's great power within creation.

Old Faithful is one of the most well known natural wonders at Yellowstone. It is not the only thing there however. Check out the entire Yellowstone Gallery at my Fine Art America Store by clicking here. 74 images from this great natural wonder are waiting for you! Check them out today!

The feel at the Paint Pots in Yellowstone is quite mystical!

The Upper Terrace Drive at Mammoth Hot Springs is a neat drive! This is just one view from there.

©Darwin Wiggett - Canon G9

Another image from Sept 11, 2009 taken at the Giant Mine in Yellowknife. One of the fun things about the equipment at the Giant Mine is that almost every truck or rail car has numbers and these raised numbers are fun to play with as part of abstract photography. I like detailed texture in the images as well as the shapes of the numbers. More images from this shoot to follow.

©Darwin Wiggett - Canon G9

I am finally getting some office time to process images I took in 2009. There are days when I photograph when nothing seems to come together and I can’t seem to get anything worthwhile. And then there are days when I am ‘in the zone’ and when a single outing produces many memorable images. On Sept 11, 2009 Samantha and I spent the day with Lee Sacrey in Yellowknife. We spent 1 1/2 hours at the Gaint Mine site just outside of town. Here old trucks and equipment make for really great subjects. It was an overcast day, perfect for detail shots. I grabbed my Canon G9 and just immersed myself in abstract shooting mode. From this single shoot I got at least 20 shots that I really, really enjoy. Over the next few days, in the Daily Snap feature I will share some of my favorites here.

Ilya Genkin

©Ilya Genkin

I would like to send my “Devil’s Cauldron” photo to your LLTL Year End Photo Contest. I wanted to shoot this place for quite a while but there was always something that prevented me from doing that – weather, high tide, business or home stuff. But finally I got there. It was the first time I visited that place and I spent 20 minutes rock hopping in complete dark. Nothing pointed to good sunrise – the sky was absolutely blank without a cloud. But shortly before sunrise strong wind had brought very nice clouds. I stacked two Grad ND filters (0.6 and 0.9) together to get proper exposure for the sky and made a couple of shots. This is 4.5 minutes exposure at f11, ISO 100. It was a real luck as right after sunrise the clouds completely covered the sky. I’m quite happy with this photo. It’s kind of long-awaited photo of a beautiful place.

Windblown water of Lake Alma, Banff

If you’ve ever experienced the vivid blue waters of the lakes and rivers of the Canadian Rockies, you know how stunning they can be, particularly on bright sunny days.  It’s not the clear blue sky itself that creates the colour, nor is it the fanciful tale that it comes from the colourful tail of the Peacock.

So how does this colour form?  It occurs as a result of what’s called ‘rock flour’, a powdery substance created in the glaciers which feed the mountain lakes and streams.  Rocks trapped in the glaciers grind against each other, forming the flour.  Glacier meltwater washes it into the Lakes and streams resulting in the vivid blue and stunning turquoise colour.

Athabasca Falls/River, Jasper National Park

Moraine Lake and Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff National Park

]]> http://ginagenis.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/getty-researching-chemical-process-photography/ Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:13:47 +0000 Gina Genis http://ginagenis.wordpress.com/2009/12/19/getty-researching-chemical-process-photography/

Click here to view an article from Alternative Photography online magazine, about a thorough account of the Getty Museum’s ambitious research project of chemical process photography.

This was another photo I took while walking Brando. I liked the way the sun lit the wires of the powerline. It looked nice as a colour shot with a rich blue sky but when I converted the image into B+W using Nik Silver Efex, I liked the shot even more. I added some film grain to the image to give it a slightly retro look.

©Darwin Wiggett - Shot with a Canon G9

Still busy, … writing a lot, … and trying to keep my feet warm today!

I have been meaning for quite a while now, to pay a visit to a site that I have heard about from some other photographers, and I finally got around to it a little bit yesterday.
Bottom line? Excellent site!
The site is LensFlare35.com.
Here you can find many Podcasts from some of the top photographers around.
You can listen to them speak while they show some of their images, and there is some quite intriguing material to be found there.
Some that I have listened to so far are from well known photographers such as Arthur Morris, Tyler Stableford, David Hume Kennerly, William Neill, Gabby Salazar, Art Wolfe, George Lepp, Alfred & Fabiola Forns, and Greg Downing.
There is a lot more that I have yet to get to, and will spend some time there this weekend just to listen, to learn, … to study.
Nothing to do right now? Then kick back and enjoy!

This image below is a sister image to a image I posted a while back.
That image & post can be found here. “Let It Be”

Hope that everyone has been getting along well, and hopefully I’ll shoot something in here again right before Christmas.

Take care everyone,
Michael

Friday 18th December:

We didn’t get much of the forecasted snow last night, but I did get the chance to go for a cold walk today and visited a small community woodland not far from me. I have been doing a little photography project here for a while and try to visit as often as I can, the results of my visits to Little Garden Wood, can be found here:

http://www.pbase.com/neilhansonphotography/my_little_wood

and more of my Fine Art Photography can be found HERE:

At the head of lake Wakatipu is a little settlement called Glenorchy, a very scenic spot with very friendly people.  It’s not hard going to places like this.

Prague is underneath the snow! Finally two days ago with more than a month delay Prague has covered itself in white and reveals its charm more than in any other season of the year…

Quite out of the blue suddenly I felt it again – the creative urge to take my camera and to go out and take pictures. So yesterday night I took my camera and went out - alone, just walked around downtown while sucking in the cleansing freezing night air and thinking about just how much I actually enjoy this and how much I love winter!

And thinking about it I decided to capture the moments I breathed in as well… So here it goes…. A small taste of what the atmosphere of nighttime Prague all covered in white feels like.

Hope you’ll enjoy!