I flew home to see my folks just after christmas. There was a cheap flight I found at the last minute, probably a glitch, but it went through, so I went. They were happy to see me and I wished I’d had more time to spend with them, but there’s never enough time.
On the way out, since I’d gotten up at 2:30am to get to the airport, I fell asleep in my seat, and woke up about 45 minutes before landing. I looked out the window, and before my eyes adjusted, I thought I was looking at some great desert, an infinity of dunes stretched out before me. The light was orange with the dawn, and everything was covered in snow. As the sleep fog in my head cleared, I realized what I was looking at, and began to photograph. The mountains are breathtaking this time of year, especially from altitude.
The plains, to the east, are harsher, even as they are flat and regular. There’s nothing to hold on to out there; just a few farm buildings and Jefferson grid roads. Cold white and not much else. I was glad that both airplanes boarded from a jetway, and not a walk across the tarmac.
Posted on 2016-01-02T21:56:51Z GMT
So this was our last day doing stuff in Ubud. The Ubud Monkey forest is half cultural preserve and half wildlife preserve, although its success at either seems dubious. It is good at extracting money from tourists, though. I sound really cynical, but in reality, it was a pretty good experience, wandering through a forest with ancient temples; the swarms of monkeys were funny, and left us alone entirely. There were warnings not to take food in, so we were careful not to.
Luckily, just outside the northern entrance, there were many shops where refreshments were available. I say ‘northern,’ but it could just as easily be the western or southern edge of the preserve. One of the problems of traveling to far flung corners of the world is that your sense of direction goes all wonky, and you have to rely on maps and signs a lot more.
Trying something a little new here, we’ll see if it works. There should be a twitter card and custom facebook image when these post. We’ll see! Isn’t technology fun?
Posted on 2015-12-21T08:42:18Z GMT
note: this started out as a lens review, and there was a paragraph in the middle that wanted to be a whole essay on why fixed focal length lenses are better, artistically, than zooms. So I let it be that, and cut out the review parts. Sharpness is a bourgeois concept, and we will not speak of it further.
I alluded to this in my last post, but I’m trying to be less fussy about composition. I’m not doing a typography or a field guide, and my subjects are always moving. I must get closer, make suggestions, and don’t show the whole thing. It calls for simplification in technique, and an increase in creativity. I’ve always seen the two somewhat in opposition, since my mind has limited, feeble resources. Zoom lenses works against this of-the-moment aesthetic.
A photograph will never be perfect on purpose. Maybe some photographs, of static subjects, shot with deliberation and care, will be great. Ansel certainly thought so. Weston too. But: their subjects are not my subjects, and out in the world where things are not fixed, you have to be ready to push the button when the moment is right. It’s a matter of a tenth of a second, much of the time. It reminds me of a description of swordfighting; if you try to think, it’s too late; it’s all feeling and intuition. One less thing to fiddle with is one more chance for serendipity to enter the field.
The physical restriction of a fixed focal length lens actually grants a degree of creative freedom. If you can select a range of options, you’ll do the easiest thing. Pick the cleanest, simplest composition. Try to place the borders of the frame clear of the edges, include the whole subject, and follow all those other neat little rules they tell you in silly books that pretend art has rules. When there’s a restriction of form, confined to one focal length, you have to arrange what’s in the frame by moving and waiting for the moment. You’re forced to see for yourself, and look outside the lines.
There’s also the reduced cognitive load for not having to pick a focal length; you put the camera to your eye, frame, and shoot. Cognitive load is the mental strain of whatever you’re thinking about, and you only have so much of it in a day, and only so much bandwidth at any given time. So, to juggle shutter speed, aperture, focus, ISO, focal length, composition, and timing, all at once, is really quite difficult. Much of that you can get away with setting once in a while, but it has to be part of your thinking somewhere, or the photos don’t work. So: if you can remove one of those questions, suddenly you have increased capacity for the others.
Zooms are not without use, to be sure. A ton of working photographers do a ton of good work with zooms, and I’ve shot many pictures I really like with them as well. But there’s another way. If you’re not doing the work you think you should be doing, try one out.
Posted on 2015-12-15T07:19:46Z GMT
So, onto the breakthrough, the big idea, what have you: I realized I’ve been showing too much with the construction pictures. I had this impulse to get it all in, to show the whole, giant job site, as if that was the way to convey the scale of it. Unfortunately, none of those pictures really worked. There was something missing, and the compositions were never good enough. Then, last week, I was looking at Peter Turnley’s book on paris, French Kiss, and realized that the compositions shouldn’t be perfect, and that you can’t show everything. You have to cut some of it out.
So, today, on the way home, I walked to the bus (moderately foolish, what with my leg still recovering, but I managed). I went past the construction that I like the best, and a subject that had been confounding me for weeks, before my accident. Suddenly, I was able to see it, and made some good pictures.
I’ve long believed that in film, it’s better to suggest than to show; the viewer’s imagination is better at pushing its own buttons, the ones for fear and awe and the sublime. I haven’t, up till now, figured out that that idea applies equally to my own work. I feel dumb for not realizing it sooner, but also relieved: there is still time to make some pictures.
Also: I’ve been shooting with the new lens and I have to say I really like it. Good depth of field in daylight, and just beautifully sharp. I didn’t know what I was missing.
Posted on 2015-12-15T06:54:38Z GMT
So, second day in Ubud, we did considerably more walking. Markets, some temples, lots of tourists. The first three pictures are what most of the town was like. Stores selling things to tourists. There were some shops on the outside of town that sold statuary and furniture, but I’m not convinced those weren’t also for export. We walked, we drank beer, we walked some more. Didn’t buy anything but food and potables (potent and otherwise).
Despite all that, there were glimpses of real beauty; the way the statues were all dressed, the little offerings left out everywhere, the old buildings poking through and around the new. The fifty foot high god with bow and arrow at the big crossroads in town was lit at night, a beacon. I’m not sure I’d seen a lotus in bloom before. On balance, a good day. Also, I believe this was also the day I discovered Pocari Sweat, which is a Gatorade analogue. It only comes in one flavor, but it’s not bad. Especially when you’ve been walking for a bazillion hours.
(Sorry to folks on slow connections, but I really didn’t want to edit these down any further.)
Posted on 2015-12-10T06:11:47Z GMT
