Viewpoints

Traveling Light

traveling light

I’ve borrowed a title from the Billie Holiday songbook here, a double entendre of sorts, at least with respect to this picture.  Billie’s tune is a classic, but I’m partial to the less well-known Chet Baker cover, released many years ago on his Baker’s Holiday LP (1965). Have a listen, and enjoy the very lovely and well-suited footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E41o0RFbriA

Panasonic GF2 – Olympus 45mm

The Art Barge: November Wide View

This was the view in Napeague this morning with the wide converter put to work on The Art Barge. During the high season, the structure serves as home for the Victor D’Amico Institute of Art where there there is full menu of art classes.  D’Amico was the founding director of education at the Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Barge was originally a Navy barge–brought to this location in 1960.

A link to the Institute, with more on its history:

http://www.theartbarge.com/

Viginti Septem

Two weeks ago I published 26 close-up images of buoys which I photographed in the days following Hurricane Sandy. This is the 27th picture, and the last of that series. You might recall that I numbered the buoys in Latin.

All these pictures are located in a new sidebar gallery entitled Flotsam. Joining them, are another three which I photographed last year and which previously resided in my Jazz gallery. The thirty pictures are assembled in a vertical line of thumbnails as if they’ve been tethered together on a rope. That suits them fine, since they are buoys after all.

Have a look:

https://johntodaro.wordpress.com/gallery-10-flotsam/

A sister gallery–Jazz, may be seen here:

https://johntodaro.wordpress.com/gallery-9-jazz/

And–if you missed the two posts with the story behind the project you can check out these links:

https://johntodaro.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/thoughts-about-hurricanes/

https://johntodaro.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/lost-buoys-dragged-from-flotsam/

Long Beach, Sag Harbor

This begins a new series of cul de sacs, road ends and deserted public beaches–all subjects which are edgy by nature and which look better when no one’s “home” (my opinion).

Some of these pictures (such as this one), will go into a new sidebar gallery entitled Off Season. Others will be on display in Road Work, although clearly some pictures will have their feet in both categories. Here’s the link to the new gallery:

https://johntodaro.wordpress.com/gallery-13-off-season/

I live in a place where the off season is greater than the “on”, so there’s a large window of opportunity. There’s also lots of road ends here because we’ve got all sorts of ways to get to a beach.

This picture is from Long Beach in Sag Harbor–photographed earlier this morning with a normal lens (a focal length which lends itself to the subject for reasons I can’t quite explain).

Panasonic G3-20mm

After The Storm

It’s been looking like this a lot lately, especially with an outgoing tide. We’ve had mercurial skies and rough water–as if the Atlantic hasn’t yet purged itself of the hurricane. We’ve also got an unusually wide sandbar with lots of driftwood littering the beach. I’ve been assuming this was created by all the sand which was washed off the dunes during the storm.

The ocean looks pretty nice, but the dunes are looking disheveled.

7am today – Panasonic G3 – 14mm – wide converter

Lover’s Quarrel (monochrome)

This is a photograph from Santa Fe which I recently began printing in black and white. In the earlier color version (link below), I was hearing too much of a “southwestern accent”…adobe walls…turquoise trim.

Perhaps the point of the picture was getting a little drowned out by color.

Canon G 10/August 2011

https://johntodaro.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/lovers-quarrel/lovers-quarrel-2/

Lost Buoys Dragged From Flotsam

In a post earlier today I talked about how this project came about.  Here’s some details on how the pictures were made:

Buoys float, because they’re made of styrofoam. I was hoping that some of that buoyancy would be apparent in these pictures. With that in mind, I looked for whimsical points of view. Later, I tried to do the same with the treatments. Buoys are cone-shaped or cylindrical–about a foot tall. I decide to emphasize the curvature rather than try to fool you into thinking you’re looking at a flat plain. The curvature became most apparent with a little bit of vignetting. Most of these pictures were taken from about a foot away with a Canon G 10.

Buoys are marked up by fisherman. They paint them with stripes and carve numbers into them so that they can ID their traps. When buoys break free of their lines, they float around for months–aging, cracking, and acquiring all sorts of grit. I’ve come across some that have been out there for so long that they resemble shrunken heads. Eventually they arrive here in flotsam, with the nicest ones fully ripened. To me, the best specimens have great complexity of colors and textures. This happens after many months of marination out there in the brine.

The pictures work differently depending on whether you view them large or small. My wife tells me that they resemble little tiles. Perhaps they’d make good icons for desktop folders. The enlarged images are more revelatory because of the cues formed by scale and subject. If I decide to print them I’m not sure how I might want to size them, or if it even matters. Click on any picture you want to see bigger, or to leave a comment on a specific piece.

I began by entitling these pictures with odd or fanciful names. That wasn’t working so I changed them to Roman Numerals. After thinking about it for awhile I settled on the Latin characters for numbers. I don’t speak the language, but they say there’s romance in it.

Sound Clouds

I’ve been intending to load up some cloud images. These were shot over Long Island Sound late one afternoon while traveling on the ferry from New London.

For a change of pace, I’ll talk a little bit about the workflow.

A bit of post-processing was involved here, but in this instance, it involved some “dial restraint”.  There are lots of sexy things you can do to a picture in Photoshop, but I decided to avoid most of those today, and in fact, went the other direction.

I wanted a baby blue sky with pastel shades that look like they could float out of the picture. In order to do that,  I had to reduce blue and cyan saturation. So I desaturated, maybe about 15%.  I then applied a slight increase of yellow and red saturation in the highlights which sweetened up the clouds just a touch. To me, this is something like applying a tiny bit of blush. Another color adjustment involved going into selective color and tweaking blue and cyan ever-so-lightly so that those colors would be a little bit less magenta. I’m not that crazy about blue skies with a magenta bias.

There were a couple more things to do. I could’ve created a stormier sky here, especially if I leaned into the left slider on the levels. A similar thing could’ve been achieved had I selected a polarizing or a graduated ND filter.  I took a look at those options but decided to do nothing. The sky had a native gradation which I liked, and so, except for a wee bit of lightening, I left the levels alone.  On plenty of other occasions,  I’ll want to take advantage of curves, levels and filters because I’m aiming for a different sort of look.

As a final act of non-action, I sharpened nothing here today because my 14mm Panasonic lens delivered a group of clouds that were agreeably diffuse. Photoshop can be like a candy store, but of course it’s not good to eat too much.

More cloudy pictures forecasted.

Lunch – Lobster Roll

Lunch (aka The Lobster Roll) is the venerable seafood restaurant which has been holding its own out on the Napeague strip for many decades. It’s a simple place that sits within earshot of the breaking surf. I’ve admired it over the years because it reminds me of those American roadsides which once blanketed this country–the places which have been supplanted by what Zippy The Pinhead called “creeping stripmallification”.

Lunch is easy on the eye, and I’ve been thinking that the place deserves a portrait. October brings good light to Napeague. This is what it looked like down there this morning.

Panasonic G3/14mm/wide converter

(Note: I’m allergic to shellfish, so don’t ask for reviews. I’ve heard the Lobster Rolls are good.)

Leaves In Mud – Trout Pond, Sag Harbor

Since we’re so close to New England, the fall colors on Long Island are generally overlooked. We have no mountains, but we do have wetlands. Here on the east end, the wetland foliage is now at its peak and Trout Pond in Sag Harbor is especially vibrant. Late yesterday afternoon I photographed these leaves in the muddy shallows along the south end of the pond. It’s a pleasant hike along the edge, and if you’re feeling ambitious, you can continue onto the trails which climb the glacial moraine south of Sag Harbor. There you enter woods dominated by oaks and Mountain Laurel.

Handheld G3 Panasonic/45mm M. Zuiko

October Oceanscape

Here’s another from yesterday’s cloudless sunrise, this time looking west away from the sun. To the right is a clump of Seaside Goldenrod, a showy autumn wildflower which blooms right out onto the beach.

The colors here remind me of hand-colored postcards from 75 years ago.

Panasonic G3/14mm/wide converter

Ship Lantern At Dusk

I took this photograph about a month ago on the Cross Sound Ferry (a service that operates between New London and Orient).  The trip takes about an hour and a half,  passing just west of Fisher’s Island, and eventually skirting along the inside edge of Plum Island into the port at Orient.

I always book the trip for dusk or dawn because I love to explore the nooks and crannies of the ship in this sort of light.

Panasonic G3/14mm/wide converter

Beach Pavilion Off Season

I photographed this scene in Rhode Island last April on a stormy day with high winds. The pavilion was hunkered down on the beach looking like a spacecraft that had just made an emergency landing. Taking the picture involved a considerable amount of bracing in order to hold the camera still.

For me, beaches are most compelling in their off season clothes.

Sassafras

Sassafras leaves come in three shapes–all appearing on the same tree. Some are ovals, some are shaped like mittens and some are shaped like these (shall we call them three-fingered hands?)

The roots of the saplings smell like root beer.

Sphagnum Still Life

Fall’s here–so I’ll be switching gears for a bit, beginning with some images from the woods here on Long Island. This one’s from the wetlands in the Long Pond Greenbelt area, south of Sag Harbor.

In this part of the country our wetland trees are typically Red Maple and Black Gum (aka Black Tupelo), and leaves from both species make guest appearances in my picture.

…a gallery of other Autumn pictures:

https://johntodaro.wordpress.com/gallery-6-fall/

Rabbitbrush Depot

Rabbitbrush blooms in late summer throughout the Great Basin, and assuming there’s been enough rain, the yellow bushy flowers carpet the land for miles.

There was lots of it here–even  between the tracks of the rail bed. It’s an unsung plant in the West, not nearly as celebrated as Big Sagebrush which grows in the same habitat. (Rabbitbrush is in the foreground of this picture, and Sagebrush is behind.)

Self Portrait With Midland Building

Walking my shadow into a photograph feels a bit brushing up against the landscape. Maybe it’s the closest thing a photographer has to the way a cat marks territory.

Interacting  can be unpredictable, but on this occasion it resulted in an interesting dose of  surrealism.

The Midland Building is in Green River, Utah.

August 30th

Panasonic G3/14mm/wide converter

Apache Chrome Strip

…a third picture from the same vehicle–and another with plenty of midrange grays.

btw–I’ve added grain to all three of these pictures in order to make the surfaces more luminous and tactile.  Back in the old days, we did this by developing our film in Rodinal, and an image processed in this manner was said to have “high acutance”. You can get a better sense of what the grain looks like by clicking on the picture to enlarge it.

Photographed on August 27th with a Panasonic G3 /45mm Olympus M. Zuiko f1.8.

Processed in Silver Efex Pro 2.

Hotel Nevada

When it was opened in 1929, Ely’s Hotel Nevada was the tallest building in the state. It still presides over the town in an uncanny way–being visible from just about everywhere.

Here, it’s seen in the rain along with a supporting array of traffic cones. I photographed it with an extra wide view in hopes of creating a “gothic” sense of the vertical.

August 19th-Panasonic G3/14mm lens with wide converter

Frosty Stand


Frosty Stand, was photographed about three weeks ago during an afternoon thunderstorm in McGill, Nevada. The picture is framed by tall trees on the right, and on the far left, by the tilting pole from a street sign.

The picture is a sister, of sorts,  for the Central Theater image in the previous post.

McGill is one of those towns that seems to have bypassed the sterility and standardization that’s got a grip on much of the rest of the country. It’s an easy place to like, for that reason.

No residents are visible in the picture, but hopefully their place has spoken for them.

Central Theater

Central Theater was photographed in Ely, Nevada last month, on a quiet afternoon toward sunset.

This is a lonely scene….but for me, it’s a worthwhile memory of small moments and places.

About the Central Theater:

Despite being up for sale, the building has some credentials.  It was built in 1939 and is the most prominent example of Art Deco architecture in this sequestered part of the state.  It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

“Magic Mike” was performing at the theater that evening, but regrettably, I missed the show.

Widtsoe

A view from the corner of one of the few remaining structures in Widtsoe, an historic Mormon ranching settlement in central Utah which dates to the 19th century.

The picture required a bit of contrast-muzzling, but once that was accomplished it seemed amplify the sense of space and mood. This is one of those places where the light can get under your skin…even at mid-day.

I’ll be posting more from Widtsoe next week. 

Ship Shadow

Stepping back from the junkyard closeups, this picture takes you to a view from the ferry. You can click on it to get in a little closer.

Shadows lurking around in landscapes were a theme I kept going back to in Utah so this picture ties in nicely with the next group of pictures I’ll be posting.

It took an hour and a half to make the crossing to New London and six more hours to fly to Salt Lake City.

Ship Shadow was photographed with a 14mm Panasonic lens attached to a wide converter.

Portal


Portal:

This is the first of a series of related close up views. Many of these pictures were photographed wide open with an F1.8 Olympus 45mm (which translates out to a 90mm on a 35mm camera).

If it’s possible to fall in love with a focal length, I’ve probably come close with that one.

For these pictures, I wanted a creamy look because these colors seem to crave it. I wanted some form, but without the distraction of sharpness. Portraits are shot wide open in order to convey a bit of lyricism so maybe the junkers deserve it just as much.

Shaved Ice

I’m back in town after a two-week circuit around Utah and Nevada. It was a trip which began (and ended) with a superfluous ferry ride between Long Island and Connecticut–admittedly, not the most direct way to get to Salt Lake City from here.

I was stubbornly avoiding the drive to the NYC airports on a hunch that maybe the original inhabitants had it right. The best way to leave this place is in a boat.

Out west there were lots of hikes and photographs although the two were rarely occurring at the same time. I visited several National Parks including Zion, Great Basin and Capitol Reef. The pictures in those places tended to be of subjects no more than ten feet away.

I managed to fill up several memory cards with pictures of limping towns, crumbling homes, junkyards, sign parts and lots of clouds. There were many closeups of aged vehicles and a number of photographs of my own shadow. There were fields of flowers and one that was full of Volkswagens. In case you haven’t heard, we Americans are a throw-away culture.

Up above, you’re looking at a shaved ice stand in Green River, Utah:  a skinny shack caught in the dry roast of an August sunrise several hours before opening time.  Nearby:  an abandoned cafe whose wonderful sign is still appealing to the road.

It’s a good picture to start off with because the shaved ice stand looks a bit like a friendly robot.

Green River is struggling along on the dubious lifeline of I 70. It’s surrounded by grey hills comprised of crunchy shale deposits, terrain where hardly anything grows (although it should be noted that there are fields of cantaloupes which thrive on the silty water of the river once navigated by John Wesley Powell).

A vacation here in August can feel like a holiday inside an oven.

The ice stand is located about fifty miles from Moab–the nearest neighboring community and one which has been rewarded with an abundant flow of tourism.

Hopefully some of those folks will find their way up to Green River.

—
 
Shaved Ice particulars:

The picture was taken with a Panasonic G3 with a wide extender mounted on the 14mm prime lens. I had a lot of fun looking at the many types of distorted views that are possible with this combination. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Runs Good and Sweet Pea

The old trucks are from New Mexico, a place with lots of aging Chevys and plenty of wildflowers.

The picture on top is called Runs Good and the other one is Sweet Pea. You can click on them for enlargements.

Paint endures out west,  mostly because of the lack of humidity. On occasion, you’ll find abandoned vehicles from the 1930’s with some original color. You might recall this one from a few weeks ago:

https://johntodaro.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/long-term-parking/

My own truck has spent far too many days on the salt lick of eastern Long Island. It’s got more rust than a box of wet nails…but it still “runs good”.

Getaway Car

Another car with a collection of bullet wounds–this one from the Comanche National Grassland in southeast Colorado–a place so far off the beaten path that I had no clue where I was.

Bonnie and Clyde drove a 1934 Ford Fordor Deluxe Sedan but I like to think it looked something like this.  I love my silver Toyota Echo, but in truth, I would’ve preferred this shade of green.

Photographing aged vehicles is a lot like photographing old folks. You have the opportunity to work with very engaging  characters. And just like centenarians, these aged cars have plenty of good stories, lots of texture, and very compelling lines.

I’ve never seen a car come off the assembly line with the ability to do this.

Flashback

It’s a midsummer’s night, so what better way to celebrate with than some more photographs of abandoned vehicles — (spoken like a true Luddite).

First up is a photograph of an ill-fated VW Van which I found on a back road outside Phoenix, Arizona. This was a remote place,  near nothing in particular. It was a hot day in April, and yes, those are bullet holes.

I owned a VW Van myself back in the 70’s and once drove it across the country in a trip that’s beginning to fade to the same extent as my high school picture. I do recall breakdowns and mechanical issues, and on the return trip we discovered that one of the spark plugs had fused to the engine block.

That was pretty bad news, because when we let the van idle, it would stall out.

We drove it home from Easton PA, all the way through NYC and then out to the suburbs on Long Island, gunning it in neutral at every toll booth and stop light in order to prevent stalling. If it stalled, it wasn’t likely to start. I didn’t check, but there must’ve been a pool of sweat under the driver’s seat.

I can’t remember what happened after that, except that my VW Van bit the dust. I always liked it, and it looked quite a bit like the one in the picture, minus the bullet holes.

This picture has become its elegy.

Outlaw


I found Outlaw not far from Old Red (the truck in the previous post).

In this part of the country, horses are a traditional means of transport–a point which invites comparison to the more prosaic pick up.

Horses consume less fuel (depending on whom you ask), and they require about the same amount of maintenance (although some would disagree). You won’t meet any ponies who are as red as pick ups, but a chestnut coat can be just as handsome as any factory paint.

One thing separates them flat out from trucks:  They crave more affection.

Click on him and he’ll come closer.

•

Photographed on transparency film using a Contax G2 and a 28mm Zeiss Biogon. Scanned with the Minolta Dimage Scan Elite II.

Old Red

I found this exhausted truck in Utah, not too far from the crimson rocks of Bryce Canyon.  One wonders:  is everything is southern Utah turning this color?

A close up:

https://johntodaro.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/semi-abstract-photographs-rusty-red-trucks/detailing/

I’ve owned about fifteen vehicles but I’ve only owned one that was red—-a VW Bug that was my very first car.  The car was red, but I was closer to green because I was only 18.

Sadly, my recollections of all the rest of my vehicles are starting to fade. When I reflect back, that VW bug really stands out. It seems that all the red things in my memory have a much longer expiration date.

I like my red photographs, so I try to cut this one a lot of slack.  Problem is: I shot it on Fuji Velvia, so I had to decrease the red saturation.

Here’s some quotes about the color red from four different artists:

“Red is the ultimate cure for sadness.” –Bill Blass

“I love red so much that I almost want to paint everything red.”–Alexander Calder

“Red is one of the strongest colors, it’s blood, it has a power with the eye. That’s why traffic lights are red I guess, and stop signs as well…”–Keith Haring

“Red, of course, is the colour of the interior of our bodies. In a way it’s inside out, red.” –Anish Kapoor

Long Term Parking

I have a group of pictures of abandoned vehicles which I’ll be posting intermittently.

There are people who find these old creatures and restore them, and their work can be painstaking and rewarding.

There might be something wrong with me, but I much prefer aged cars that look like cow skulls. In truth, they’re often found in the same places and are much more interesting to look at. Peeling paint works for me, and the fresh stuff never has.

Unless it’s my imagination, more light shines in when the window is missing.