Sunday Support Group: Stuck in Sepia

I went AWOL from TOP last Tuesday. As I mentioned on Wednesday in the "Photo-Dawg" post, it was because I spent a lot of the day on Tuesday out looking around for pictures. I direct your attention away from the time I wasted in the pool shed, although that, ah, might have been a factor too.

Here are a couple of sample shots from my Tuesday out and about.

Torn Sky

When I look through the viewfinder now, a lot of times I'm looking at pictures I've seen before. Either pictures I myself have taken, or pictures I've seen. It irritates and annoys me; I don't see the point in taking a picture that looks like other pictures.

Ice-fishermen. Seen it. Sigh.

One thing that usually helps save this from happening is specificity. For example, if you look at the picture titled "Just now, Monday..." from this post (one of my favorites), or the picture of Honeybee Dave on his tractor from this post, you'll see that they're certainly pictures you've "seen before," generically speaking. But, specifically, it's my dog Butters in my backyard, and my friend Dave on his tractor up on Welker Road. So that's what makes those pictures unique, never-before-seen and valuable to me. They're not interchangeable with other pictures of dogs in snow or guys on old tractors. For anyone else they might be. But for me they aren't.

The job gets tougher with scenery. Why take another generic scene? What makes it specific? But often I'll just keep looking until I start seeing something that doesn't look like a picture. "Torn Sky" was something I haven't exactly seen before. I like it, partly for that reason.

This is a picture we've all seen before, obviously. But the situation was kind of funny. In a faintly alarming way.

I was in that mode I talked about when I just can't stop shooting, even though it was almost dark (a lot darker than it looks here). I was fumbling in the cold with the camera—a camera I've been using for seven years—and somehow managed to screw up all the settings. My hands were numb with cold and I kept hitting the wrong button or icon and then another wrong button or icon. The more I tried to fix things the worse it got. Observing myself from outside of myself I could almost see how funny it was that I was getting so frustrated and flustered. But I was. Anyway, after a lifetime in which I don't think I have ever once set any camera to "Sepia," I managed to get my own camera stuck in Sepia mode. I couldn't get back out. It's embarrassing, admitting this, but am I not honest with you? Any photographer who tells you he or she never screwed up the settings on one of these digital do-it-alls is a liar. Or a savant—I'll bet Thom or Kirk never get their cameras stuck in Sepia.

The United States, which in the 19th century was an agrarian nation, is dotted with millions of old barns. On one stretch of barely more than a mile of back-country road, way back in the hills, I counted five. No one knows how many are being lost nationwide, but I've seen estimates that America is losing between 500 and 1,000 old wooden barns a day, which seems incredible.

It might be true, though. As I've driven around my area, where I've lived for only five and a half years, I've already witnessed the deterioration of some of the barns I pass regularly. The Amish will park their buggies in barns where it seems like "protection" from the elements and "danger" from the barn collapsing and smashing the buggy to kindling seem like they're about in equal balance. I've never passed this sepia barn before, but it's no longer being used.

Old barns are surprisingly well built, and if their roofs stay intact they can stand for a long time even if they're not being cared for.

Anyway, I didn't intend to set the camera to sepia, but, since the camera was stuck in sepia anyway, I looked around for a subject that would look well in sepia. I took this one last shot as the light was fading, tucked my tail between my legs, threw the now sepia-only camera on the passenger seat, and called it a day.

Mike

Book Product o' This Week:

Is it too late for this? 2021 is still young. There are two reasons to value these Michael Kenna calendars from Nazraeli Press: one is that his originals are 8x8", so these pictures are meant to work at wall-calendar sizes. The other is that these calendars can actually increase in value! I'm told some older ones sell in the hundreds of dollars. Dan Smith suggested this. He says "The printing is excellent and the calendar is beautiful."

The above link takes you from TOP to Amazon. This week's pick is not available at Amazon Canada, but 2019 is. Hey, the pictures are still good. "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases."

 

Original contents copyright 2021 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Timothy Auger: "I've been shooting slides since 1964 and digital since 2002. I've just completed a monstrous exercise, taking reference shots of nearly 20,000 slides on a lightbox with a macro lens, so at least I now know what slides are in what box. But...taking into account that review and familiarity with tens of thousands of more recent digital shots, I can confirm that over nearly 60 years I have taken over and over again the same landscape shot (with tree); the same alleyway-in-Italian-town shot; the same detail-of-sculpture shot; the same foreshortened river-or-canal shot; the same church-or-cathedral-interior shot plus a few others. I just can't resist yielding to the temptation of certain compositions, however predictable I know they are...so, Mike, I understand your post."

Jed Soane: "Down here in New Zealand we have the SOS taskforce working to prevent clichéd photography, or 'travelling under the social influence' as we call it."

Mike replies: It's a hard job, but I'm glad somebody's doing it.

Bob Johnston: "Some years ago I attended a Michael Kenna exhibition in Banbury, not far from where I live. Kenna attended Banbury School of Art, hence the exhibition there. I have always admired his work but was amazed to see how small the prints were. They were little jewels of course and every one a traditional darkroom print. He uses a Hasselblad. So thanks for the heads up on the calendar."

Marc (partial comment): "I do get frustrated at times in the same way. I have started calling them my 'comfort shots,' which helps me not just accept them but sometimes lets them feel like they’re more about warming up, exercising (there’s one particular photo I take every time whenever I visit the city, just because it makes me giggle inside). The quest for newness is important to me, but I try to balance it with a quest for what I like—repetition seems inevitable."

Luke: "My wife will see one of my photos and say 'That's a Luke shot,' and she's right. And it's a little disturbing."

Comments

[Daniel]

The Nazraeli Press site in the UK shows they still have some for sale.

https://www.nazraeli.co.uk/complete-catalogue/michael-kenna-calendar-2020-1?rq=Michael%20Kenna

[Dan]

That barn shot would look great in black and white.

[William Cowan]

Regarding the idea of specificity; this is, I think, one of the allures of portraiture in comparison to scenic photography.
And, however accidental, to my eyes, the barn photograph is one of your best, not at all devalued by the horror of highlights, nor even a musty period piece.
(alas, it is a fault of mine that I will never be able to free my mind of your criticism of Garo.)[Insert, if not completely happy, then at least kindly face]

[Jeff1000]

Hey Mike, why don't you try to do a Eugene Smith-type of photo essay on the Amish?

[MikeR]

A watercolor painter I know uses the phrase, "Another rock, Another tree," to describe this ... what would you call it? .... phenomenon.

I have it in mind whenever I find myself taking a picture of yet another rock, or yet another tree. But, they can be so INTERESTING!

I try to not let it dissuade me. Yes, I've seen much better photographs of St. Marks square, but this one is MY photograph, taken from MY vantage point, with MY camera.

[Aaron]

In response to this post and your previous: for me, part of the specificity of any scene is exactly the light. The same scene at different times of day, year, in different weather conditions and circumstances makes for different photographs. Even so, the reason I bother taking a photograph is not so much to make something new or unique, but to artfully document light and experience. A lot of the photos I take wouldn’t mean much to anyone else. But, I enjoy looking at the photos to appreciate the light and my attempt at thoughtful composition. Another aspect of the specificity is that I was there at that time under those circumstances. Even if it’s the sort of scene that’s been done before, on this occasion at this moment I am the one experiencing the light and trying to document it artfully only for the pleasure of doing so.

[robert e]

The sepia in that shot of the barn strikes me as a rare non-gratuitous application of the look. Kudos to fate, or your camera's AI that you activated by accident, or gremlins or whatever it was, but mostly to your presence of artistic mind, skills and experience... Take the credit and smile!

Strikes me as an excellent exercise: set your camera for a look you wouldn't be caught dead ever using, and go out and use it.

“All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Only those with no memory insist on their originality.”
― Coco Chanel

“A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.”
― Dorothy Sayers , Gaudy Night

But, seriously, whatever happened to the notion of perfecting one's craft over time, through iteration and practice? Aren't we damn lucky that Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Matisse, Cezanne, etc. tackled the same scenes and images and themes over and over again? That Bach and Faulkner mined the same veins throughout their careers? And for the most part, these themes, threads and ideas were nothing new--these geniuses made them new.

Inventing from scratch is nearly impossible--but making it a little better, or more yours, or more *something* each time--that's the work. Keep at it and you might even earn your way to "original". IMHO "originality" per se is a red herring, a fool's errand, even a cop-out of sorts. Almost by definition, you can't go looking for it.

h/t Goodreads for the quotes

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I did one shoot an entire roll of film that I had apparently neglected to load into my camera. Despite (I thought) having built the habit of watching the rewind crank rotate as I advanced the film most of the time. It was on an assignment, too, not just shooting for fun. Not actually sure I was in my 20s yet, though.

[Speed]

How did I get here and how do I get back?

Many years ago, Microsoft did a study of what keys and commands were used most often in Microsoft Word. Number one was ... Undo!

Like Mike, I have occasionally found my camera lost in a mysterious state or mode with no obvious path to more familiar territory. And of course I never carried the 150 page user manual to help me back. But ... I now carry a PDF of the manual in my phone which is always with me.

And of course, now that I have it I've never needed it.

[Bob Johnston]

I think the barn works very well in sepia. Sometimes a mistake is a lucky one. I feel for you. I have been in that screwed up buttons situation a few times. When I was an engineer we called it finger trouble.I love Torn Sky. Absolutely worth a shot. I would have included all three cloud breaks in their entirety or just have had the centre one in portrait, but that's just me. Landscapes are the one genre that benefits from a zoom lens most of the time.

[Robert Roaldi]

Is it beneficial to look at the issue backwards? Since we do tend to revisit familiar territory, is there a good reason for doing so? We must be getting something out of that.

[JoeB]

Been there done that. Too many buttons, features not used. I was on one of my photo walks last week. I looked at my camera and the warning "out of memory", no more shots on the card. How could that be?
Easy, I mistakenly pushed the video button. It kept a record of my feet on pavement, the sky, and filled my sd card.
That was simple to fix, just deleting the video but I will be careful with my fingers next time.
I'v never shot in sepia before....maybe next time.
The barn photo is very nice, atmospheric. As is the "torn sky". Worth the time to setup those shot.

[Eliott D James]

Love the sepia barn!

[Yoshi Carroll]

https://same.energy/feed/Variety
Find similar photos based on the photo itself, as opposed to metadata about the photo.
Once we know for sure that all photos have been taken, what’s the point of taking more?

[Zyni Moë]

An experienced user of a machine getting stuck in its settings ... this is as if I got stuck only being able to play the D string of a guitar. A user interface which even allows this possibility was not designed to be used by human beings.

Of course everyone gets stuck in their creative processes: often I get stuck playing certain phrases, chord progressions, or clever tricks which become annoying twitches. And there are ways out of these traps that our teachers explain to us: play only 9th chords, use an odd tuning, play instead the piano. This is to be human.

But to be trapped in a user interface: this is to despair. The machines we have built are eating our minds.

[Dan Khong]

Your barn picture, like most barn pictures, begs the question, "What's in there?" But few get to know. Did you find out what's in there?

[No, sorry. --Mike]

[Richard Tugwell]

I think everyone goes through inspirational droughts. Some thoughts...

I've moved around a lot in my life and I've often experienced the sort of thing that David Bailey (I think) described (paraphrasing) "For the first 24 hours I take photographs like crazy, because after that everything starts to look the same".

On the other hand I've often photographed the exact same location, or experience, and each image retains an individuality because of context, personal mood etc. Not just static scenes like landmarks or landscapes, but cafes, pubs, events, stations, buses etc.

I've never found the idea of going out looking for photos very fruitful, unless you are documenting.

"The best photos arrive uninvited" - Jane Bown (paraphrasing again)

Photography is a very broad church with many rooms.

FWIW I'm in a bit of a drought myself at the moment

[Tim Charles]

It might not be for you, but I found that the ideas in the book Seeing Fresh. The Practice of Contemplative Photography helped me produce photographs in a style that I had not produced previously.

[John Wilson]

Hey Sepia ain't bad! Thank your lucky stars it wasn't accidentally jpg as I did the first outing with the X-T1 6 years ago. And the shot is lovely just the way it is with that warm evening light. I'd lose the truck though ... to my eye it's just a distraction.

[John Wilson]

Mike - on second thought ... keep the truck. It works fine that way.

[Marc]

I do get frustrated at times in the same way. I have started calling them my “comfort shots”, which helps me not just accept them but sometimes lets them feel like they’re more about warming up, exercising (there’s one particular photo I take every time whenever I visit the city, just because it makes me giggle inside). The quest for newness is important to me, but I try to balance it with a quest for what I like - repetition seems inevitable. And though they are never quite exactly the same, many would say my aesthetics are exactly as boring every time too. Ah, well, the eye likes what it likes.

Incidentally, on its way to me are a camera and lens I feel I have long been moving towards - a Fujifilm X-Pro3 and a 23mm f2 WR (it will come home to a 35mm F1.4 sibling). I expect there to be lots of clouded-in, moist, textural, tree, rock and mist photos in my near future. Repeatedly.

[DavidB]

I just took a shot of ice fisherman last week. In Arizona.

[John Krumm]

Both the sunset shot and the barn shot are quite good, and I tend to classify these things with kitten photos, puppies, covered bridges in the fall, and boudoir. You have a good sense of composition, but especially tonal control of the dark areas that to me makes these stand out. Okay the old truck and the barn together might be over the top, but sometimes you just have to go with what's in front of you.

[Stan B.]

I think the pandemic has forced everyone to at least try and see anew- I stitched together my first digital panoramics. In my nascent digital career (which I will never outgrow) my menu selections/options would go askew every other push of a button, intentional or not. Now, I at least have a general idea of which menu rabbit hole to descend before I start cursing aloud. Some electrical tape 'fixed' a 'self moving' dial below the ISO dial on my X-T1.

Some in the photo art world take to degrading Kenna's work- whatever one thinks, at least he keeps it small and humble, which alone is more than can be said for some...

[Lynn]

Take another 25 pictures of barns, and make a book "TwentySix Barns". Instant classic.

[Sharon]

Maybe shake up your lens selection. We just got the fuji gf 250 with the 1.4 teleconverter. Dirck took that load on a walk. It was fun! We met this excited guy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLP_sCNssHC/

[Paul Glover]

Given the current situation in which I have been working from home since last March and only venture out for walks with the dog around our apartment grounds, I’m becoming depressingly familiar with taking the same photo. The tree just outside our patio might well be in he running for “world's most photographed tree” if I keep this up! iPhone, 2 different micro four thirds cameras, 35mm black and white, Instax, Polaroid, even medium format and a 4x5 transparency...all of the same subject in multiple seasons, every kind of light, you name it. Maybe I need to curate it all into a project of some kind!

[Bryan Geyer]

Tiresome repeats of similar compositions are inevitable when always using the same (or nearly so) wide angle focal length lenses. Those ice fishing subjects would present all sorts of possibilities at 200mm to 600mm (equivalent). Given the freedom implicit with shooting in APS-C or micro 4/3, one doesn't need to be a packhorse anymore to explore entirely different options. Just add a tripod and a cable release.

A Nikon D500 + this…https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1275036-REG/nikon_20062_afp_dx_nikkor_70_300mm.html
…light weight tele present new vistas.

[Dave]

Mike,

I enjoyed the old barn photograph. I sympathize with your frustrations concerning your S.O.S. (stuck on sepia) camera. I can just imagine you shaking the thing and telling it that you never had these problems with film cameras. :>)

One of the things I appreciate about the Pentax digital cameras is the "magic" green circle button which resets certain settings. Plus, it resets itself to your stored settings on the User 1 . . . User 5 settings if you switch to a different User setting, then back to the setting you were using. (Turning the camera off, then back on will accomplish the same thing.) You must go into the menu to actually save any changes, which is another fail-safe feature.

The torn sky is a photo I don't remember seeing. A very unusual and thought-provoking photograph in my opinion. The dark areas are foreboding, but there's hope from above that all is not doom and gloom. I'm so glad you had a camera with you! That's a keeper.

I went out with my camera today and found a bunch of activity on the frozen lake. Snowmobiles, ATVs, a bicyclist and even a unicyclist. And I luckily got a shot with both cyclists in the same frame. The longest K-mount lens I have is the 77mm Limited, so at "full-zoom-in" on the computer, the subjects aren't really sharp. But at least I got something.

You just never know what you'll find. Even if it is an unintentional sepia-colored barn. Good work, Mike!

[lisa]

I have that in mind any time I catch myself taking an image of yet another rock or another tree. Yet they might be so sexy!

[Thomas Mc Cann]

Don't you have Memory buttons where you can store presets? My Panasonic DC-G9 has a get-out-of-jail - free button marked iA (Intelligent Auto) which I resort of over flustered

[Jim Metzger]

For inspiration look no further than Ruth Orkin, "The World Through My Window". An entire book of beautiful photographs take from her apartment window overlooking NYC Central Park.

Part of our "job" is to present the oft seen in a new and revelatory light. (Pun intended). I've seen an exhibit of the contact sheets for many of Cartier- Bresson's most iconic images. There were many so-so photos until he found the "decisive moment".

Like writing, we may all use the same words, it is how they are arranged on the page that creates art.

[xf mj]

Barn pic is great. For me, repeatedly taking photos of sites I’ve already snapped is like keeping up with, and documenting, some old friends. And besides, the light changes even if the location doesn’t. There is always that hope that the light will really elevate that one pic that one time. And then, if the light is regularly good, there’s that place you always snap that reminds you that you can still take a good pic, even when the others just aren’t happening.

[Patrick]

I kind of get the "been there done" that attitude. I'm a scenery guy, so I mostly feel that on the next trip to somewhere familiar I feel like there is the possibility of better light, and even the same photo is going to be different (and better) because of the different conditions. Sometimes I even see something in a familiar scene that I haven't seen before - a new angle, a different element to include. So you can get tired of a scene, but it takes a lot for me to feel I've worn it out.

[Aaron Hines]

Try giving A Lesser Photographer by CJ Chilvers a read (and the complete book is now available online: https://www.cjchilvers.com/a-lesser-photographer). In my opinion, its a great antidote to the feelings you have written about in your recent posts. When I get frustrated that my images are not turning out better than the masters' most famous work, I reread it to recenter my attitude and expectations.

[Rod S.]

Mike, your sepia barn picture is interesting. I’ve never seen that barn or it’s kind before. If you don’t like the sepia treatment, it can be easily undone.

[Yoram Nevo]

The Ice-fishermen photo reminds me of a Pieter Bruegel (the Elder) scene.
Regards, Yoram

[jp41]

It's interesting to read the varied feedback on this set of posted images. Torn Sky doesn't do much for me, but I do respond to Ice-fisherman (converted to black and white) and Sepia Barn. As time goes on you may find yourself liking Sepia Barn more and more, too. May I suggest you ask around and to try and find some history on this structure as additional back story. Also, I think this barn would make a nice subject for a 4x5 film shot, too.

[David Stubbs]

My attitude toward photographing similar subjects repeatedly comes from sports; not art.
I don't golf but I have a brother-in-law who does. His willingness to hit that little ball over and over comes from looking forward to those times when it's hit perfectly. Maybe a lesson from pool, also?