16
Oct
2014
Commentary
28
May
2014
A DAY FOR CHOOSING
Every time I head into the darkroom I learn something new. I learn another way of thinking, working, creating or just being a photographer. Everyone knows that the first thrill in photography is just being there. You are out in some visually exciting environment, suffering from optical overload. You know that the vast majority of the film you expose will never be printed, but still you shoot away. I cannot count the number of times that the one I really had hopes for really flops when printed, and the one that was just a wild guess is a keeper. That is why you shoot. . . even if you are not really confident the results will be worthy of the film. You just never know, but if you do not make the exposure, you are guaranteed to have nothing.
Once you have all of the film processed and proofed, then begins the arduous task of selecting what you want to print. This is always a tedious and mostly unforgiving chore. Making a finished print is time consuming. I would say that either of us will put in ten to twelve hours in a typical printing session. And, generally we will produce, on a good day, four finished prints. Some days maybe less. That is why it is very important that the negative chosen needs to be well thought out, and you need to have some amount of confidence and a plan before you begin.
I don’t want to go into the darkroom and start haphazardly printing. I want to have some organization and a good idea of what I am going to be doing before I begin. Nothing is more frustrating than floundering around without a good starting point. It is bad for the head, it wastes time and materials. I would rather not print a day, spend that time getting prepared and then print the next day. I find that creativity is fleeting and if I am not in the mood, don’t even go there. Find something else to do till your mindset is correct. 
The process of negative selection begins by studying the proofs. We have worked up a sheet that we fill in with interesting photographs we would like to print. We call this sheet “MISC NEGATIVES SELECTED FOR PRINTING” and it is little more than a group of boxes to fill in with negative numbers, film size and notes. I ginned this up using a word processor years ago and we run off multiple copies and keep them on a clipboard in the darkroom.
As I said before, I keep refining my creative process. I have learned one thing that is even interesting to me. I have found that I print much better, have much greater success that is, if I concentrate on one particular type of photograph in a printing session. For me, at least, if I am printing say wood and leaves and having a good day, it is not a good idea to switch to printing running water or snow. It just doesn’t work well for me.
So, I have begun grouping my selected negatives into those that are of like content. An example would be; on our last trip we were in Yosemite NP, Zion NP and Arches NP. I did a lot of wood details in both Yosemite and Zion, so I have grouped all of the similar subject negatives onto one sheet. This way, I will only print those negatives in one, or several consecutive printing sessions. I have quite a few snow and ice negatives from Yosemite and Arches. Those will be grouped and printed in another session.
This may sound strange, but for me at least, I find that I print better when I get into one sequence of thought and keep the subject matter similar. It just works better for me. . . maybe it would work for you also?
Finding something worth exposing a sheet of film to is one thing. . . the next step is selecting the very best of your film for the finished print. Anything you can do to help will be a great asset to your art.
JB
10
May
2014
ART & CRAFT
“. . . art lifts off from craft. Artist do things that craftsmen don’t know are possible.” -David Vestal-
The photographic artist is a blend of craftsman and artist. The finished print is the interpretation the photographer has chosen to display for consideration by the viewer. This finished print is seldom a true representation of what was actually in front of the camera at the moment of exposure. The photographer chooses, through the practice of craft, to present his, or her, interpretation of what they saw and felt at that exact moment in time.
The photographer must be a master of both art and craft. There must be a confidence in the practice of the craft that allows him, or her, to be able to convey what is seen within their mind’s eye into the finished print. The technology, limited by the mechanical and chemical boundaries, must be understood and used to the best advantage, or the image will fail miserably. The craft is fused with the artistry by understanding its limitations and properties, then using them to their best advantage to create the fine art print.
Honing one’s craft allows for the seamless integration of the inherent limitations of the medium with the artistic creativity within the artist. The craft should not be evident to the viewer. The use of craft solely for the sake of craft is annoying and obvious.
When the photographic artist is in the field, working with their subject, they should not be distracted by fumbling with their craft. Having to think about technique or hardware distracts from creativity. The photographer should know their tools to a point to where it is not a distraction. When dealing with art and craft, neither should get in the way of the other.
Learning and mastering the craft of photography is the easy part. Craft follows the exact rules of chemistry and physics. The art of photography is the hard part. There are no rules in art. The artistic statement is simply correct when it looks right. No amount of calculation nor measurement can be applied to art. So the logical approach is to first learn, then hone one’s craft, then use that skill to its greatest advantage to create an artistic statement. Simply put, in the creation of photographic art, the craft should be invisible.
JB
24
Nov
2013
WADDAYA KNOW. . . FILM IS STILL NOT DEAD
This is a fascinating little film made by Indie Film Lab and sponsored by Kodak. Rather than try to explain it all, here is what they have to say;
Published on Nov 16, 2013
Earlier this year, Indie Film Lab took a trip from Montgomery, AL to Las Vegas, NV for the annual WPPI trade show. After we decided it would be more interesting to travel via RV than plane, we started planning our trip around the places we wanted to see. Originally, we had an idea to create a 5-10 minute video of our trip, for fun, then Kodak came on board and our project has turned into a 47 minute feature. The film has now turned the focus less on the trip, to more on the photographers themselves and why they shoot film. We can’t thank Kodak and all our friends who helped and supported us and our project. We hope you enjoy the film and are inspired to create things you truly care for, in a way you are truly passionate. Long Live Film.
You can find the film on YouTube at this address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjtphPVchJI&feature=youtu.be
I suggest if you are a photographer or are interested in photography, that you sit down and take the time to watch this 47 minute video. Listen carefully to what the people are saying. Take note that those interviewed are not a bunch of old fogies “dinosaurs” that are bitter about film getting a bad rap. These are young, first generation digital only photographers that are beginning to realize that they have been lied to.
They are beginning to “get it!” They are realizing that digital is not a replacement for film. It is simply another art form. . . another way of working. Listen carefully to how nearly everyone interviewed talks about the look of film being different.
This is a breath of fresh air. Exactly what I was hoping would happen. . . the younger generation has suddenly discovered they have an alternative when it comes to their photographic art. You cannot hide the truth. Truth always rises to the top. Do not be fooled into thinking anything is a dead ringer replacement for anything else. You can bank on it!
Shoot digital. . . shoot film. . . it does not matter to me. Just don’t tell me film is dead and that digital is a replacement for film. Digital can not do everything film can, nor can film do everything digital can. Not so. . . choose your tools wisely. As Fred Picker used to say;
“Different Is Not The Same!”
JB
06
Oct
2013
CALL ME PRIMITIVE
I was recently reading about creativity, and I was captivated by a chapter titled, “THOUGHTS ON CREATIVITY” from the book “The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression” First Edition 1994, by Bruce Barnbaum p. 141. He touches on things I have seen but have never really understood.
Barnbaum says that in Western art creativity is all about originality, where Eastern, or as he calls it “primitive art” is more about traditional methods of the original masters. He talks of how the primitive artist works toward the quality and style of the ancient masters, and how any departure is not acceptable in their culture.
Barnbaum goes on to talk about how the primitive art mindset is not in fashion, nor acceptable in Western art. How working in the style of past masters is seen as, “redundant, hollow, and meaningless.” He talks of how even using past known techniques is looked upon as mere “copies” and are deeply frowned upon. He further says that working in the style of past masters is “a good learning experience” yet is not accepted as anything of worth by Western civilization.
I see this a lot in our Western culture. Someone takes a hand full of cow dung and throws it at a canvas and it immediately becomes a fresh new art form. Personally, all I see is BS. I have to admit that there are a lot of things I do not understand. Jazz is another thing I can’t comprehend. . . several people all playing something different at the same time is not music to me. But, that is my personal take and mine alone.
I love the work of the past masters of photography and I fully intend to continue to produce my work in that style. It is what I like, and if you don’t please yourself, you are not going to be convincing to anyone else. Guess I will kick back and put on some Pink Floyd and contemplate making some more primitive photographs. . . maybe some more of those redundant, hollow, and meaningless copies.
So, you can call me PRIMITIVE. . .
JB
19
Sep
2013
ANOTHER WORLD
I was recently involved in a very serious discussion about photography. I was informed that the trend in photography today is for B&W prints to be light and airy. I was told that the deep blacks and brilliant whites I love so much are reminiscent of photography of the 1930’s and 1940’s and is not ‘in’ today. I was also informed that today’s trend is all about color images. I was given the impression that B&W is, in this so-called ‘modern’ world, sort of an ugly stepchild. At least, that was the impression I was given after a conversation with someone that is supposedly an ‘expert’ in the field.
Personally I have never been one to adhere to the current ‘trend’ or ‘fad’ nor do I give a rat’s rear about whatever is ‘in’ today. I have no interest in what is popular, nor in fashion. To be an artist you have to, first and foremost, be true to yourself. If you pander to the wishes of others, you will do little more than chase your tail trying to please everyone else. What is most important is to cater to your own vision. Truly meaningful images only occur when you have an internal connection to what you are photographing. If you are following some sort of fad, or the perceived wants of others, all you create are hollow nothings. This is what advertising photography is to me. I look at the images in magazines and TV commercials and all that is there for me is something visual to catch the eye for the purpose of selling something. My personal definition of salesmanship is, convincing someone to buy something they don’t want, don’t need, and can’t afford. I want nothing to do with this mindset. But I digress from my original thoughts.
I have a different view as to how I want to present my subject. I really wish I could find another planet to photograph. I want to show a world that is unseen by human eyes. This sort of thing being impossible, I have to resort to finding things that I can interpret in such a way as to portray them as otherworldly.
I have no interest in presenting a literal representation, but more literally, I am interested in, and strive to create, my interpretation of what I photograph. I love the abstract. I like to give my viewers a look at something they will not see every day. I have no interest in documenting the boring everyday. I wish I could visit another planet, another world, in another galaxy. But alas, I have to settle for making photographs that match my vision as best I can on this planet.
JB
15
Aug
2013
I HATE COMPUTERS!
Guess it is time for one of my long rants. This time I am going to unload on computers. I will begin by saying I really hate computers. A computer is a machine and in being so, for me, it should perform a function. It should perform its assigned functions flawlessly and without me having to waste a lot of time coaxing it into working. I have been on this subject before and I think it is clear that about three years ago we set all of our PC-type boxes on the curb and went 100% Apple. This was the most intelligent move I have made in my life. Maintaining these machines has been a pleasure. I would estimate that I have spent 1/1000 of the time hassling with OS X as I did each year maintaining Windows. Never again!
Now this is where I start, that was just the background, in case you have not kept up with my rants. Once going Apple the only annoyance to me is the lack of support for OS X by some developers. It is an annoyance to have to run some form of Windows to gain access to several applications that are not supported. Fortunately for me, there are only about three applications that I have to hassle with. I have been able to somewhat use these apps by installing Windows XP using OS X BootCamp. They work, but not without some functions failing to perform. This has been a thorn in the side, but doable.
I understand how a very small company cannot afford to support two operating systems. I dearly love my BTZS apps and used them for graphs and plotting VC paper grades. I whole heartily applaud Fred Newman and the View Camera Store for making this great software available and continuing to support it. The film community is a small dedicated group and we need more like Fred to help keep film alive. By the way, did you know you can calibrate your enlarger to every VC paper you use? Take a look at my article HERE.
What I do not understand is how a multi-billion dollar company that sells their products in every corner of the world can refuse to support OS X? They do have the resources and should support their customers without discrimination to their choice in computer. I will not mention any names, but there is one very large company that is on my list. What list you ask? The one that says, would not buy water from these people if I were dying of thirst in the desert. That list! Trouble is, I use one of their products and it requires I use their software. Little I can do except complain. . . and I am not alone on this one. Yet this company refuses to listen. Oh Well!!!
We have struggled with BootCamp and I have to admit it does work pretty well. It is a pain to have to restart to switch operating systems though. An old friend of mine is an avid amateur astronomer and he has to have a copy of PhotoShop for manipulating the images he makes. Thing is, he is stuck with an older Windows copy of PhotoShop and refuses to pay to rent the latest version (this is a very sore subject from what I have heard from other photographers that use PS) and legal older versions of PS software is off the scale price-wise now days. This friend of mine and I have been searching for a more convenient way to run our old Windows apps on our Apple computers. Seems my buddy really got hot on the trail when this PS thing hit a few weeks back and did some serious research into a cost effective, working solution. Thanks to him, we found a working answer.
If you are in the same boat as my buddy and me, and are looking for a solution to running Windows apps on an Apple, at an affordable price, here you go. Take a serious look at VMWare Fusion. You can download a 30 day trial to make sure everything works for you. In my case, I had already installed BootCamp and it was extremely simple to add this working partition to Fusion. I had it all up and running, without having to reinstall any of the Windows apps, including Windows, in about thirty minutes. The real thing is, it just works. Even my network printer works now with my BTZS apps. I can run my Windows apps on my OS X desktop just like a native app. My buddy, never having installed a BootCamp partition, had to install everything new and this took him much longer, but he does report that PS and all of his astronomy apps run as expected.
Here is the link to VMWare Fusion. At this writing it will set you back $49.00 and if you dig around on the Internet you may find a $10.00 off coupon code like I did. As I said, I hate computers, but they are a necessity these days. It is just that computing shouldn’t be a life altering, time consuming, event when you need to do something.
Rant over. . . though my love/hate relationship with computers has not changed. Now back to photography, as Edward Weston said, “my favorite subject!”
JB
24
Jul
2013
JBH FILM STATS 1996 TO 2013
I have been working on my photo database the last week. I have detailed records of the photos I have printed dating back to 1996. Using that data I have created some charts of what I have done. Here are a few of the charts that outline the last 17 years of my fine art photography. This information is from the data entered into our master database which only contains those negatives that have been taken to a finished print. This data does not include all the negatives that have been exposed and processed during this time.
Guess all that time taking notes and entering all that data has some worth.
JB
15
Jul
2013
500 YARDS
Brett Weston is credited with saying, “Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn’t photogenic.” That is particularly true when you enter the world of Large and Ultra Large Format. I would even venture to say that distance shortens exponentially as the camera size increases. You could say that distance is inversely proportional to size. We live by these laws of physics and it is darn hard to get around them.
I have given this a lot of thought and have deduced that;
1. The camera folded size is determined by the film size
2. The camera weight is determined by design and materials
3. My back can only carry so much
So, it is pretty clear that item number one is fixed and there is not much you can do to make any format camera much smaller in size. Also, my back has its load limit and that I do not want to exceed. This leaves item number two as about the only place you can experiment.
It is understood that making any mechanical device lighter makes it less rigid. You have to sacrifice some rigidity for a reduction in weight and size. There is always someone that starts complaining about how some cameras are not rock solid when they grab one end and twist. They complain about the camera not being stable. The reality is, it is just a function of the design. I always say the same thing, the camera only has to be still while the shutter is open. The rest of the time, who cares? The camera is just a tool and should not be obsessed over. Choose what works best for you.
Way back when I first started getting serious about photography I decided to buy a new 35mm camera. I did a lot of research and settled on three major brand names. The trouble was, I could not decide which best suited me. I knew that there would be no appreciable difference in the finished print. I challenge anyone to look at a framed print on the wall and tell me what brand of camera was used.
So, it all finally came down to making a decision. After some contemplation I decided to go to the local camera store and handle each camera. Actually I had done this several times, but what I was looking for as I neared my final decision, was which best fit my hands. My final choice was based on this one final criteria. I chose the camera that felt the most comfortable to me. Its controls were conveniently laid out and worked seamlessly. This is how I chose and I have never regretted that process.
Fast forward to today and little has changed with my thought process. I am always looking for what best fits my hand and my way of working. In any device design there are always trade offs. To gain one feature may require some sacrifice in another. Keep in mind that if you are going more than 500 yards with that LF or ULF camera, item number three above just may be the most important consideration.
JB
Way back when I first started getting serious about photography I decided to buy a new 35mm camera. I did a lot of research and settled on three major brand names. The trouble was, I could not decide which best suited me. I knew that there would be no appreciable difference in the finished print. I challenge anyone to look at a framed print on the wall and tell me what brand of camera was used.
10
Jul
2013
I find it odd that when you tell someone you are a photographer they immediately assume you are the local Olan Mills studio operator. They either want a family portrait or have a daughter that is getting married and want to hire you. I guess there is a mass disconnect when it comes to the word photographer. Should I introduce myself as a Fine Art Photographer?