View Camera

It has been a very busy start to 2015 for us here at Harlin Photography World Headquarters.  We returned from our annual trip out West the first week of January and have not had time to look up since.  We had a lot of film to process and thankfully, that is about done now.  Susan is already printing new film and JB is almost done proofing and filing.

One project we have wanted to tackle for several years now has been an upgrade to a more user-friendly, modern-look for our web site.    The site has been in continuous operation since 1999 and has gone through numerous upgrades over the years.  We have continually added more and more content, so it is no small task to rebuild a site that has this much subject matter, but it needed to be done.

We really wanted to start on this last year, but there just wasn’t enough time.  This year the web site project was moved to near the top of the list and it is finally a done deal!  JB has been hacking on WordPress code, off and on, since early January and has finally finished the site with a completely new look.  We have even moved to new web hosting for the delivery of the updated jbhphoto.com web site.

We have rebuilt all of the Snapshot Albums.  The Cole Weston Workshop album was completely rebuilt and the original photographs have all been rescanned.  The Articles and View Camera Project areas have been updated and revised.  JB and Susan each have new areas with updated galleries of their work.  We have updated the menu structure for easier navigation and access to content.  The entire site has a new look using a customized theme that we feel is much more pleasing, up to date and much easier to navigate.

We would like to invite everyone to stop by and take a look at our new web site. . .www.jbhphoto.com

Always, thanks for your support!

JB & Susan

PS   After the move to new web hosting and due to many instances of spammers registering, we have removed all registered users to this BLOG.  If you were previously registered and receiving email notifications, we are truly sorry. . . don’t blame us, blame the spammers! You will need to subscribe to this BLOG to receive email notifications again when new posts are added.  If you would like to Subscribe to the jbhphoto.com BLOG for email notifications, click on the SUBSCRIBE link in the top navigation menu under INFO, or in the bottom left menu.  Follow the instructions on the Subscribe Page.

I am fascinated with all of the deeply technical discussions on some of the photography chat sites.  Seems there are those that want to dissect every minute detail of the process.  They want to over-analyze everything from camera focus, to lens sharpness, to even how a shutter works.  We have those that argue about filter factors, meter calibration, and one instance of bellows extension being calculated to one eighth of a stop.  All fine and dandy if you are into engineering.  But my question is, what does this have to do with the finished print?  That photo mounted and hanging on the wall either does it, or it fails.  If it fails, is it some technical problem?  If so, do you need to do some more math? If it is successful, does it matter what the technical details really entail?
 
I come from an engineering background.  I love photography because it is an escape from all of the numbers and rigid thinking involved in engineering.  Creating art is strictly a right brain experience. . . if you try to inject engineering, you kill the process.  Sort of like having to explain a joke.  It does not work!
 
It is true that I do engineer certain aspects of my photography.  But I do it for the purpose of eliminating the engineering from the creative process.  I want the act of making a photograph to be completely transparent with respect to all distractions of the mechanical process.  In other words, I do the engineering in the shop and when I go out to make images, I leave all that technical chatter behind.
 
As I said, I find all of the extreme dissection of the mechanics somewhat fascinating, but I believe it is totally unnecessary.  In fact I find it extremely detrimental to the process of creative art.  Yet, there are those times I just have to read the deeply technical discussions, mainly for my entertainment.  
 
This is where I think of Edward Weston.  If you have studied the man and his life work, you know of his dedication to the medium of the photographic art form.  You also know that he was extremely limited in his comprehension of anything mechanical.  He only drove a car once in his lifetime.  If his camera broke, he had no idea of how to repair it.  His darkroom was a place of extreme simplicity.  He was all about making photographs.  I really believe that for him, the mechanics was more of a hindrance than even a curiosity.  He did not understand it, and he was not interested.
 
When it comes to the way I work and think about photography I have devised a test that helps me sort out what is really necessary and what is just a lot of distraction.   I use what I call “The EW Test.”  In keeping with the Weston simplicity in thinking, when I encounter some deeply technical aspect of photography, I simply ask myself;  “Would this matter to Edward?”  If I can answer YES, then maybe I should explore it in more detail.  If the answer is NO, then I file it away as BS and not relevant.  I believe that our lives are complicated enough as it is today.  I have to borrow a quote that an old friend uses on his e-mail footer;
 
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”  -Leonardo da Vinci-
 
Think about it. . . you may find that more concentration on your art and less time studying the engineering just may be the ticket to more creativity and less time wasted engineering.
 
JB