Rainy Day

I didn't do much writing today, but I did a lot of photographing. It was forecast to rain all day, and I was unhappy about not being able to get out with the camera...so I figured that, just to get something, I'd go look for reflections on a wet road. The rain was coming down when I shot this. I had to shoot from inside the car, so I just looked for a place where I could park at the proper angle.

It ended up being a rather spectacular day—great swaths of mist clinging to the steep hillsides, and even a little sun when it got down under the clouds. As usual in the Finger Lakes, though, what we're missing is places to get an unobstructed view.

I found a guy fishing in the rain—man, did he ever know a lot about fish and fishing in the lake! And I ended up taking a lakescape I really like ("Sun After Rain"). See if you like it too. I'm very glad I went out. You can see a larger version of this picture on Flickr too. As well as the fisherman.

I am having a whole lot of fun.

Mike

Book o' the Week

Fred Lyon, San Francisco Noir. "The version [of San Francisco] that Fred Lyon celebrates in his new book is a classic San Francisco full of smoky jazz clubs, neon lights in the fog and sharply dressed men and women stepping on and off of trolley cars. Made mostly during the 1950s and '60s, Lyon's images are big on atmosphere and style, and hit many parts of the city that visitors love." (PDN)

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B&H Photo

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

Stephen: "Hello Mike, The very first thing that came into my head the instant I saw the photo of the car on the road was, 'it's not straight!'

"Ruins it."

Mike replies: So then, you don't believe I got the photo the way I wanted it? Even though I've been deconstructing for days the lengths to which I'll go to do so?

You're you, and you're in charge of you, and you can do whatever you want to, but my standard advice to anyone who feels that way about pictures is: it would be best for you to get over that. I understand the straight-horizon compulsion, and I know it's common—I've seen it since my teaching years—but it's counterproductive. It will shut you off from an appreciation of an awful lot of photographs. Any such fastidious preoccupation will—and there are dozens if not hundreds of common ones, some of them opposites. ("Every B&W picture must have detail in the lightest highlights and the darkest shadows!" "Every B&W picture must have some pure black and some pure white!") In general, one either takes a given photographer at his or her word, or doesn't. If Garry Winogrand wants to shoot with the camera held at an angle, we just decide whether we think Garry has anything to say to us; if we think he does, we accept his pictures the way he wants them to be, even if it's not our own way for our own work. The bottom line is, I want this picture to be this way, and you should accept it. It's not your picture. That sounds like hubris, perhaps, but it's not, it's just the way the exchange between creator and viewer works.

(In the case in point, the problem is that if you get it exactly straight, the band of light in the sky is at too much of an angle, and then the picture looks more, not less, crooked. Plus, I like the way the slight angle in the reflections add to the "stance" of the car.)

If readers will indulge me and allow me to pursue the point further, take for example the photographer Guy Perkins pointed us to the other day, Ando Fuchs. Ando photographs in a style unlike my own; his techniques and strategies are not ones I would follow; he resorts to methods I would never use. But I can also tell immediately that he is doing what he wants to do; getting his art to look the way he wants it to; and it's clear after looking at merely 20 or 30 of his pictures that he has a lot to say. So I meet him where he is, accept his language, and surrender to his "world." Because I can see he's genuine, authentic, being true to himself. I take him at his word.

This is necessary. It really is. But not for our own work necessarily—for the work of others. How else can one appreciate Anders Petersen, and Uta Barth, and Andreas Gursky, and Philip Jones Griffiths, and Saul Leiter—and so on?

People can get over the "straight-horizon neurosis" and anything similar in other people's work if they work at it. I recommend it. But of course if you choose to dismiss me as a naïf who doesn't know what he's doing, I accept that too.

[By the way, I apologized to Stephen privately for appearing to lecture him. Of course my comments are actually aimed at whoever wants my advice. Those who don't are aware they don't.]

Kye Wood: "Damn Mike. These are some beautiful shots. I don't think it's the camera either. But if it inspires you to go out, when you could just stay in, then yes, it is the camera.  :-)  Isn't black and white such a graceful way to remember a moment? I know this won't make Featured Comments because it's too complimentary—and that's okay sir."

Maris Rusis: "That a horizon can be pictured out of level is a legitimate and valuable expressive device. Cinematographers have been doing it for nearly a hundred years. It's called a 'Dutch Tilt.'"

David Lee: "There is a beautiful Kertesz photograph with a very tilted sea horizon and I love it."

scott kirkpatrick: "The horizon is just one of the straight lines that can be part of a picture. Winogrand's famously tilted pictures often have some other straight line that magically turns out to parallel an edge of the frame. It just meant more than the horizon did, or maybe the tilted horizon trapped something important between it and the straight line at the border."

Comments

[Martin B]

I really like the feeling that this photo and Sun After Rain tap into. A blend of film based photography and 2022 technology that lets you look at the image instead of thinking about technique.
I’ve been reading this weeks mono exploration and look forward to each new post.
Thanks

[Albert Smith]

"It was forecast to rain all day, and I was unhappy... I'm very glad I went out."

I keep reading that dog owners are often more healthy because they have an obligation that precludes a sedentary life... you got to get out there with your pet.

I feel the same way about my camera. Many is the time that I got my butt off the couch to go for a photo walk. In hot humid Florida, it's hard to justify sweating through your shirt 10 minutes after you leave the air conditioning, but when I return with a nice shot that I'd have never got if I just sat at home thinking about photography, I too am glad that I went out.

[robert e]

"I am having a whole lot of fun."

Looks that way!

I am more impressed with each post, and each batch uploaded to flickr. The DR seems really, really good. DOF is insane. Obviously excellent raw material from camera and lens, but due credit to the photographer/editor/student. Seems like a good match.

What are you not showing us? Is there any noise, ever? And what's it look like? What are you losing to lack of IS, if anything?

Personally if I could get this much resolution from these tools, I'd feel no need for a long lens (and factor that in to total CoO, pretending that GAS doesn't exist). That's where I'd really need IS anyway.

[Dillan]

That's what happens when you buy a new camera! Enjoy!

[John Krumm]

Your car shot has a "more I look at it, more I like it" quality.

[Dave]

Mike,

I'm glad you ventured forth in the rain. I really like how the white houses pop in the sunlight!

I remember reading in one of my photo books that inclement weather shouldn't be a deterrent to taking photos. Beach towels and big plastic bags were advised since cameras back then weren't weather resistant (other than the Nikonos).

I love how trees look after a heavy snowfall. I try to take some B&W photos during the winter. The road leading to my workplace usually has the best-looking trees with snow, but there isn't a good place to park the car and start taking photos. (Plus, I'm usually running late for work. :>)

[Kenneth Brayton]

I never thought about a horizon line. I did think of all the times I have made a drive like this. Your rendering has captured the feeling of such a ride. That seems to be the idea making an image.

[Gordon Lewis]

I'm glad you're getting over your reluctance to show examples of your work here on TOP. First, it helps to remind readers that you do, in fact, have something to say in images as well as words. Second, it provides an opportunity to remind us that, as you advised Stephen, self-expression is exactly that, and only you know how you prefer to express yourself. Keep doing so, irrespective of praise or criticism, and let the pixels fall where they may. We'll all be the better for it.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

”Bad weather makes for good photography!”
I don’t know the attribution for this quote but it’s sure one of the truest axioms in photography.

Exhibit A: Your rainy images, Mike. They’re very expressive. The road and the lake images demonstrate the potential for just letting the environment (negative space) just sit its big butt on the rest of the scene. It’s a very effective device to force viewers to move their “otto focus” (“Otto, focus on that!”) outward to brighter or darker objects. You can hear the sizzle of the tires in that road photo. (And no, it’s not crooked to my eye.) In the lake image the birds in the water, the distant cloud, and the bright line of buildings along the shore really show perspective and scale and demonstrate how that big-ass cloudy sky works.

It’s excellent to see you having fun clicking the shutter, Mike. Keep it going!

p.s. My Sigma fl-l rental kit arrived this morning in a big Pelican case. Woof…I feel like James Bond. Some assembly required, eh?

[Peter Komar]

Well, all righty then. We all can be critics I guess and I have been one on this site as well. I did not see a straight or not straight horizon line on the car in the rain image but to each his or her own. Gary Winogrand had quite a wonderful career and produced many iconic images and I would say not many had anything close to a straight horizon line. Ultimately we photograph for ourselves and that is the where the enjoyment lies.

[Michael Stockhill]

Oddly, I thought the subtle curve of the road is what makes it.

[Bahi]

You’re in fine photo-taking fettle. To me, the car looks a little like it’s careering down the road. I know it isn’t but the look adds to the drama. New gear or something else has you fired up nicely. Good to see.

[Grant]

Here in Toronto, AKA, New York City, the film productions all have water tankers to wet the streets for the nighttime scenes.

Could you imagine Deckard pursuing Replicants in a dystopian LA without constant rain? Rain is a bonus for photographers.

BTW, the Honda looks level. It's in hill country.

My 2 cents.

[MikeR]

Having spent a week earlier this month at Cayuga Lake, I have to say that I much prefer Keuka. Steeper inclines to the water, just big enough, but not so you can't get it all in the frame. I do like the waterfalls around Ithaca though.

[Guy Couture]

Thanks Mike for letting us see your B&W vision.You are a good photographer at that.
Your house interior is nice and you beautyfully rendered it. Same with the rural scenes. All is a matter of tones in black & white and you have it.
Hope you publish more with this new camera
All the pleasure is ours( and yours too)!

[Bob Johnston]

Very atmospheric pictures Mike. I could feel the damp in the car photo and the reflections of the headlights are great.

[Kevin C]

Mike, I lived in Binghamton and Owego for a year. You can say many things about the local horizons, but straight ain't one of them.

Eastern Shore of Maryland, different story.

You made a good point. Art has guidelines, but few rules.

[Herman Krieger]

Speaking of rainy day photography-

[darlene]

I have a teacher friend that came in the classroom once a week to talk with the students about his photography shoots, etc. He and I are friends from way back, and respect each other's work. He is well-known for his "crooked horizon dislike." Unless a horizon is "the" topic of discussion, crooked or not, never bothered me. It was interesting to see how some of the students picked up on his crooked rants and agreed with him. I think photography cliches are not only about the message an image may project, but also about common distractors that seem to bug some people. Because I came up as a commercial artist first, all I ever cared about was if I made the client happy.

I like your image. It feels just as it looks to me; a rainy twilight moment on the highway. I can hear and feel the water spraying out from the treads. Thanks for the experience!

[Moose]

Counterpoint.

Immediately after torrential downpour, Mt Desert Island, Maine.

Monochrome.

Sunset, same afternoon.

Monochrome.

In each case, the mono version is a perfectly good image, but doesn't convey the feeling/experience of the subject.

OTOH.

More elegant in mono.

Color photo of monochrome subject.

This has wonderful, subtle tonalities, that don't come across here.

[Mark Sampson]

As Garry Winograd famously said, "Tilt? what tilt?"
I'm a view-camera guy (mostly) and have spent many years photographing architecture, so a level horizon (and vertical verticals) are built-in. But not necessarily in hand-held work, as in your fine photo above.
I'm glad to see you having fun; making photographs and writing about them is what you were meant to do. And I love seeing photos of the Finger Lakes, one of my favorite places on Earth; I wish I'd taken more photographs there during the decades I lived nearby. Keep up the good work!