The Online Photographer

Realistic Minimalism

John Camp, Atlantic

John Camp, also known as John Sandford, Pulitzer-Prizewinning journalist turned bestselling author of thriller novels, has coined a new category. (He can't claim to have invented or originated it.) Realistic Minimalism shows something real but so reduced to its essence that it becomes design. Okay, so he was half kidding. But I like "Atlantic." He thought my snow picture the other day qualified.

I'll bet a lot of other photographers have qualified as Realistic Minimalists a time or two and don't even know it! 

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Robert Roaldi: "A movement is born."

Marlof: "One in that category is hanging on the wall in my study."

Mike replies: I thought of that too. I love that picture by Leigh Perry. And it's a gorgeous print. I still have yet to get mine framed—the framer I had been using quit business.

Robert Stahl: "Liked your mention of John Camp's 'Realistic Minimalism.' I also appreciated his recent reference to Paul Caponigro's 'Running White Deer' photograph. The photo reminds me of a line about God from poet Rainer Maria Rilke's The Book of Hours:

Often when I imagine you
your wholeness cascades into many shapes.
You run like a herd of luminous deer
and I am dark. I am a forest.

"Paul Caponigro passed away a few weeks ago at age 91. His compelling B&W work inspired a generation of those working in monochrome."

Steve Boyle Composite

It's frustrating for me when I want to talk about a picture but it doesn't have its own URL. I'm not allowed to reproduce it; and then I'm not able to link to it, either. I found some larger JPEGs of this picture, but I can't direct you to them. Grump.

Anyway, here's the closest we can come: go to this link on professional photographer Steve Boyle's website and take a look at the first picture, top left. It's a composite image of all the B.A.S.E. jumpers who safely and legally jumped off the New River Gorge Bridge in Victor, Fayette County, West Virginia, over a six-hour period on the third Saturday in October, either last year or the year before.

The other day I posted the picture taken outside of my first darkroom, as the space appears now, using a recent real estate listing. On the "'No Animals' Adams" post, two before that one, Craig Yuill pointed out that he takes 100% of his wildlife pictures using 35mm and crop-sensor digital, and that "Ansel Adams wasn’t really equipped for wildlife and bird photography." Technological progress has been happening since the beginning of photography in 1839—actually since well before that—but it occurred to me that it would be an interesting organizing principle for a book or show to collect together examples of pictures that couldn't have been taken or made (or couldn't have been taken or made easily) before the era of digital imaging.

Some such techniques seem to have faded since their initial popularity. Do you hear much about Gigapixel images any more these days? I don't think I do. That was a big thing for a while. Doubtless people are still making them, but I don't hear about it. What about those pictures that are constructed entirely in Photoshop, without any help from a lens image? I don't think I've run across one of those in years. (Of course those, like AI images, aren't photographs.) Merged panoramas were a big deal when the capability first appeared in editing programs, but now that any smartphone can do the same thing automatically it's a bit passé, except for those who are being creative with it. That effect with one color object in a field of B&W was popular enough that Steven Spielberg even used it in Schindler's List (1993), but it seems we're over it now. Except in the movie.

Some ideas go from fantasy to reality in a very short amount of time. Didn't the first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone (2001), feature oil paintings that came briefly to life as live images? Now, with "Live View" on the iPhone—no doubt there's a counterpart effect on Android phones—that's commonplace for a whole lot of people.

Of course, it couldn't be reproduced in a book.

It would be interesting to collect or catalog examples of the various kinds of images we can make now, with today's equipment and software, that couldn't have been made, or couldn't have been made easily, in, say, 1990, or 1980, or whatever year you want to designate as being just prior to the digital era. I'll bet the list could be quite long. Although I find I can't actually think of a lot of examples offhand.

Steve Boyle's colorful, crowded composite would make a nice place to start.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2024 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Random Excellence: Photographer Unknown

Credit: Huntington Ingalls Industries

Photographer unknown: the future USS Jack H. Lucas

On the internet, one thing leads to another.

I was poking around on the various websites of Raytheon Technologies Corporation, an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, because I have reason to believe that the loaner Leica 50mm Summilux-M I have here was largely designed and built for Leica, as many of its lenses have been, by Raytheon's ELCAN Optical Technologies subsidiary (formerly Ernst Leitz Canada) in Midland, Ontario. At some point I ran across a small JPEG of this image, sort of a large thumbnail. I thought it looked pretty dramatic, and I was curious as to what it shows, as I often am with photographs, so I started poking around trying to find a larger version.

It took time. It turns out that it's a small crop from a much larger picture that can be seen here on the Huntington Ingalls Industries website. HII, a Fortune 500 company, is the largest shipbuilding company in the USA. My family has a minor connection to shipbuilding; my father was charged by Congoleum Corporation with returning the Bath Iron Works, a shipyard in Maine, to profitability when Congoleum owned BIW. BIW is currently owned by General Dynamics Corporation.

The picture shows the then-future USS Jack H. Lucas, a Navy guided-missile destroyer, before its launch. I haven't been able to find out much about this ship-launching method; apparently the ship was built on level ground, moved on rails to the large apparatus [UPDATE: it's a dry dock! See Omer's comment below. —Ed.] you see it sitting on here (a process called "translation"), and then the entire apparatus is simply sunk, which lowers the ship calmly into the water, where tugs move it away. Construction continues after the ship is afloat.

Medal of Honor
That's how I came across the rather astonishing story of one Jacklyn Harold Lucas, of North Carolina, the sports-obsessed son of a tobacco farmer.

Jack Lucas enlisted in the US Marines at the age of 14 during WWII so he could fight in the war. The Marines eventually discovered his deception and moved him to non-combat duty, but, for another chance at combat, he stowed away on a transport ship bound for Iwo Jima, thus technically becoming a deserter. He turned 17 during the voyage. Before the invasion of Iwo Jima, Lucas presented himself to command and expressed his willingness to fight, and was accepted into service, presumably because he had legitimately reached the minimum age requirement. During the fighting on Iwo Jima, when his unit was being fired on in a ravine, Lucas threw his body on two live grenades to save his comrades. One of the grenades exploded. The comrades he intended to protect left him for dead. The Veterans Administration says, "Another unit discovered Lucas and tended to his injuries before carrying him to medics in a safer location. Lucas was treated on the USS Samaritan hospital ship, in multiple field hospitals and ultimately at a hospital in San Francisco, California. The grenades [sic] left over 250 pieces of shrapnel in his body and he underwent 26 operations in the following months."

Photographer unknown: President Truman and PFC Lucas

While still in a hospital in North Carolina, in 1945, the desertion charge was rescinded and Lucas was reinstated as a Private First Class in the Marines. In October of 1945, President Harry S. Truman bestowed the Medal of Honor on him, and Jack Lucas became the youngest Medal of Honor recipient in the Marine Corps as well as the youngest from any branch of the services since William "Willie" Johnston, a drummer boy, earned the medal at age 13 during the American Civil War. Lucas remains the youngest MoH recipient of the 20th century and of the 21st century so far.

Don't tempt fate
The story doesn't end there. In 1960, reportedly because he wanted to master his fear of heights, Jack Lucas enlisted in the paratroopers. On a training jump, both his main parachute and his backup parachute failed to deploy—and he survived that, too. (I presume one of the parachutes must have partially deployed, but I don't know that whole story—I haven't read his autobiography, which is appropriately entitled Indestructible.) Lucas was finally felled by cancer in 2008 at the age of 80.

Getting back to the ship, it was named in 2016 by Secretary of the Navy Raymond E. Mabus of Mississippi, who served in that capacity until 2017. Apparently naming fashions have changed; it used to be that a ship named for an individual would use the surname only, e.g., "USS Lucas." Full names are apparently now more often used. The US Department of Defense says, "The DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer (DDG 51) is a multi-mission ship designed to operate offensively and defensively, independently, or part of Carrier Strike Groups, Expeditionary Strike Groups, and Surface Action Groups in multi-threat environments that include air, surface and subsurface threats. These ships will respond to Low Intensity Conflict/Coastal and Littoral Offshore Warfare scenarios, and open ocean conflict, providing or augmenting power projection, forward presence requirements and escort operations at sea." Here's a picture of the ship just after her (hey, gotta respect pronouns) launch. USS Jack H. Lucas was christened on March 22 of this year, and will enter service in 2023.

I still don't know who the photographer of the ship picture was, but I'll ask. [UPDATE: Huntington Ingalls no longer credits specific photographers; see Dennis Mook's comment below. —Ed.] I guess it can stand for the work of photographers who, generally in anonymity, take record and publicity pictures for companies and corporations.

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)

These book links are your portal to Amazon. Please use our links; they help support the site.

B&H Photo

Original contents copyright 2020 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

Omer: "The 'apparatus' is a dry dock. It lowers and raises boats and ships in and out of water by means of flotation. When a partially completed ship is pushed on to the dry dock, that vertical side of the dry dock is removed allowing the ship access to the dock.

"I worked at Avondale Shipyards in the early 1980s which at the time had one of the largest dry docks in the country, located in the Mississippi River believe it or not. The USS Iowa battleship was partly modernized there, all the while out of the water on the dry dock. Photography in the yard was of course forbidden but I still managed a few pics of coworkers, now passed." [Ed. note: Link is NSFW.]

Mike replies: Thanks Omer. I was searching for "ship launching methods," and the term "dry dock" didn't occur to me. My bad.

Dennis Mook: "Mike, that is a floating dry dock. We have several here in Southeast Virginia. As you assumed, the dry dock is flooded with water and 'sinks.' The ship is then floated on (or off). The water then is pumped out which raises the ship out of the water. There are pre-positioned blocks set to tightly fit the ship’s hull so when lifted out of the water, the ship remains level, stable and secure.

"My daughter-in-law was a photographer for Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding and my son is employed by them. She told me the company stopped crediting individual photographers and now just lists the company for photographic credit. At the Newport News Shipbuilding facility, their main business is the design and build of aircraft carriers and submarines. It is an amazing process to see how ships of that size and complexity are put together."

Random Excellence: Family of Don Parsons

Distant cousins Ina, Bird, and Bessie. Did they
make these dresses?

Reader Don Parsons sent me these selections from his family pictures, and I asked him if I could share them with everyone. (The captions are his.)

On the "Turkey's Back" post, Don wrote: "My dad passed in late January. I just finished cleaning out his house, along with some help from my angel wife and a cleaning company. There are numerous small file cabinets filled with plastic bags stuffed with old pictures. There are three tomato boxed stuffed with old photos, many of which I had never seen before. I'm slowly going through them now, digitizing the best and the historic. It's fun, time-consuming and painful all at the same time. If I was there, I'd give you a hug and we'd have coffee my photo-brother. Stay strong."

So here we have a few of the treasures from the Parsons family tomato boxes.

Four of my Grandfathers, starting from bottom right moving counterclockwise: Merle Parsons (my grandfather), behind him his dad William, his father Jay, and, seated, John, who lived to be 100 years, 94 days.

My grandmother, Maye Hankins Parsons, riding a horse in the early 1930s.

My dad as a small boy, late 1930s.

Mike again: Years ago when I was a photography student, I used to wish that I could go scour everyone's snapshots to seek out the elusive accidental masterpieces. Given the great mass of family photo material newly ensconced in my barn, the operative expression is: be careful what you wish for!

Thanks, Don. You stay strong too...yesterday my stress finally relented, and I was as torpid as a stranded manatee the whole day long. It was weird: I kept slipping into stage-1 sleep, where you still feel like you're awake but your thoughts start to get disordered and bizarre. I felt a little like I was going mad! Blissfully, Lulu let me sleep last night, and I'm rejuvenated this morning. Onward!

Mike

[How to Put a Picture in a Comment]

Product o' the Week:

Fingertip Pulse Oximeter. The link is from TOP to Amazon. This relates to health, not photography—it replaces one of the advanced functions on the latest Apple Watch. Takes your pulse and measures your blood oxygen. For heart monitoring, checking for COVID (low blood oxygen is an early warning sign) and slow heartbeat. I'm learning to correlate the way I feel with the readings. Works with iOS and Android. Nifty little device, super easy to use, and cheap.

Original contents copyright 2020 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

Michael Cytrynowicz: "Lovely photos Don!—and thank you Mike for posting them. It is such a pleasure to savor the details of how people looked, dressed, posed—the documentary function of photography is unique and irreplaceable. They are alive, their personalities and dignity visible."

Random Excellence: David Dyer-Bennet

David Dyer-Bennet, from the Words Over Windows project

David Dyer-Bennet, whose friends call him DD-B, has been a TOP reader for a long time and a photographer for a much longer time. After George Floyd was killed in DD-B's neighborhood in Minneapolis, he became fascinated with the art that bloomed on the plywood covering broken windows, and began to document it. He calls the project Words Over Windows.

"I’ve lived in South Minneapolis for nearly all of the last 40 years," he writes. "The killing happened a mile from my house, at an intersection I pass through many times a week. The Cub and Target over by 3rd Precinct are where most of my shopping happened, and is a mile north of a previous place I lived. 5th Precinct and the Post Office and Wells Fargo that got burned are a mile north of me. I lived just around the corner from where Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore was burned (and have known the owner since the 1970s). This is all familiar territory, right where I live."

He created a book that's being sold in local stores. The project in its current state can be viewed at the website he created for it.

David had a print sale on TOP in 2014. Mine hangs in my living room behind my front door.

Mike

Reply from DD-B: "Wow! Surprised, and of course very pleased, to see this. This project ate much of my summer, from starting shooting in early June to getting the site up in August, plus considerable time since working on prints (I'm traveling, but I got acceptable proofs of some panorama prints the week before I left, and need to get those on the site). Had no idea of what I was going to do with the photos when I started shooting, either. (And stats show that some people have indeed clicked on the link to the site. The rest of you should stop by and look at the photos also.)"

Original contents copyright 2020 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

BOOK of the WEEK
as discussed in this post from last week:

How Not to Diet by Michael Greger
(Links go to Amazon)

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

John Camp: "Uncle Hugo's science fiction bookstore was right next to Uncle Edgar's mystery bookstore (as in Edgar Allan Poe), both stores part of the same operation. I've signed books at Uncle Edgar's and didn't realize it had been burned. That's very sad. I can't think of a less offensive place in that neighborhood or any other...just booky people going in to find a good read."

Joe Holmes: "What a great collection! Starting at the beginning of June, I've been documenting the Black Lives Matter street art in New York City's Soho and Lower East side, resulting in this collection. Because the art was constantly being removed or tagged or painted over, I felt as if I were on a mission to preserve the work before it was gone."

Mike replies: That's some great documentary work Joe.

Random Excellence: Sunflower Wedding

If this isn't enough to get your Friday morning started off on the right foot...posted on reddit by u/Sassykat13 under the heading "Never have I felt so happy and beautiful. My sunflower wedding 🌻 "

Her joy is infectious, isn't it? I couldn't find a credit to a photographer, but then, there were 2,088 comments at the 12 hour mark and I didn't read them all. Here's one sample that made me laugh, though, from a "MrDeathMachine":

Dude...I am a 50 year old 330 lbs bearded bibby wearing blacksmith and I audibly said 'Awwwww' loud enough it woke the Ol lady up. She had to pull her CPAP off to look too. We are very happy for this young lady and wish her the best from The Deathmachine Family.

I'm sure a great many of us have shot weddings; I have. This picture seems to be authentically what some bride portraits only aspire to be. I couldn't help but smile. Best wishes to Sassykat13 and her new husband for a long and prosperous marriage!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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

Phil: "It reminds me of many years ago. We were headed for the beach at Ventura, California, to enjoy the sunset. On the way we decided to stop at a liquor store and get some ice and pre-mixed cocktails. We got to the beach and ran into a threesome all happy: two of them had just gotten married at the Ventura Mission, and the third was best man. They saw me with a camera and came over to ask if I would take a picture of them. They had forgotten a camera. I took several and got their name and address. Then my brother remembered he had his Polaroid, so took three more and gave them to the couple. I don't think I've ever seen a couple quite so happy."

Kye Wood: "Every wedding I've ever photographed has ended in divorce, after much unhappiness. With one exception—a couple that stayed together and are more lonely than if they'd never met. But the couples I know who are happiest never married. Including me. And yes, I've been married before."

Random Excellence: Ellie Davies

Ellie Davies, Fires 5, 2018

As you know, the "random" in "random excellence" merely means it's a picture I happened across by chance. I found this, during an image search for something else, at a site called 1stDIBS, self-described as "the world’s leading marketplace for extraordinary design." It's offered as home decor. (Our print offers are too.)

Ellie is a serious and accomplished photographer however, represented by galleries on several continents and possessing a formidable number of awards. For example:

Her Fires series was selected as a Finalist in the Klompching NY Fresh 2019 Summer Show and received a Gold and two Bronze awards in the Moscow International Photography Awards 2019 and Winner in the 12th Julia Margaret Cameron Awards: Professional Landscapes and Seascapes category. Fires was also selected Winner of the 12th Pollux Awards—Professional Fine Art Series category in 2019, Conceptual Professional Nominee in the The Fine Art Photography Awards 2019 and Winner in the Nature, Environment and Perspectives category of the Urbanautica Institute Awards 2019.

"Fires 5" is likely what I'd call a photo-illustration rather than a photograph. To my eye, the angle at which we're looking at the fire seems subtly different from the angle at which we're looking at the forest floor. Of course the literal content of the picture shows very poor firecraft, or perhaps none at all, and that's got to be deliberate! What jumps to mind are issues of contained fires that are useful versus out-of-control forest fires that are destructive; the peaceful beauty of a quiet campfire implies its inherent dangerousness. There's a lot of that tension here.

Her Statement stops short of admitting to Photoshopping in so many words, but that would be a natural part of the toolkit for her stated aims: "...my work explores the fabricated nature of landscape by making a variety of temporary and non-invasive interventions in the forest, which place the viewer in the gap between reality and fantasy ... The forest becomes a studio, forming a backdrop to contextualize the work." And isn't "non-invasive interventions" nice terminology for the kinds of things Steve McCurry got criticized for? We're good with it if it's artwork rather than reportage or documentary photography.

Spots of warm color in cool-color fields, and spots of light in visual fields of darkness, are probably as much hardwired into our eye-brain instincts as our proclivity to see and distinguish human faces: for countless millennia such a sight would have meant safety amid the vast tracts of the cold, cruel, lonely world. So there's a lot to think about in this disarmingly simple scene, but also surprising (if implicit) drama and a lot for the eye to enjoy.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Thanks to all my Patreon contributors!

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Random Excellence: Paul De Zan

Paul De Zan's photographs of San Francisco's dark orange sky:

It's very hard to believe that it's been eleven years since we first featured Paul De Zan's aerial photographs of San Francisco. [Here's a link to those 2009 aerial photos. —Ed.] This is a sampling of his photographs of the strange phenomenon known as the "dark orange sky," caused by a combination of wildfire smoke higher in the atmosphere and fog. "The orange hue is caused by the same process that causes the vivid colors at sunsets," says the National Weather Service. "Shorter wavelengths of light (blue) are scattered quickly, leaving only the yellow-orange-red end of the spectrum."

The unusual phenomenon didn't last:

September 10th, 2020

Same view a day later from somewhere near the same spot

Many thanks to Paul for these.

For more of the dark orange sky from above, my friend Scott Paterson of Saabnet posted a drone video on YouTube.

Mike
(Thanks to Paul and Scott)

Original contents copyright 2020 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.

Please help support The Online Photographer through Patreon

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

JoeB: "It is hard for me to believe these photos were not helped along with a 'custom' white balance to enhance the orange. A bit of underexposure and it surely is an enhanced and questionably accurate representation of reality."

Stan B. replies to JoeB: "I don't blame you for being...skeptical; but as someone who saw it, was surrounded by it, and also has their own evidence of just how apocalyptically orange those skies were—I can assure you, no manipulation was necessary! I have RAW files where the the orange hue is considerably deeper than what is displayed here...."

Nicholas Dade: "The photos aren't enhanced. I am 50 miles south of there. The orange day was dark and orange. I took photos out my window and matched the exposure to what I saw outside. My photos at 4 p.m. that day look like they were taken at dusk."

Paul De Zan: "Here's the original camera file from my favorite of the five above. I did light it up a bit, as reality wasn't quite as dark. No other changes. It was a truly extraordinary day. I'd never seen anything like it before."

Kristine Hinrichs: "I read that the Halide camera app has experienced a huge increase in downloads because it could capture this orange as it appeared—other apps auto-corrected the WB."

Marc: "I’m from the Snowy Mountains in regional Australia and feel that colour down deep. I suspect millions of Australians can after last summer. I’ve a photo from January 4th, the sky filtered into this dark, burnt shade, nighttime two hours before sunset, on the long day and all-nighter we spent waiting to defend from a predicted possible ember attack which we were fortunate to not have arrive (goggles and N95 facemask adding to the hot discomfort, getting up out of the camp chair all night to check falling black leaves for warmth, punctuated by the absurdity of turning over struggling, upended Christmas Beetles confused by the fluorescent lights shining out of the garage doors). It’s such an ugly colour to me now, and I watch your fires burning, feel deep for you while knowing I’ve got to plan and prep for it to come again, savouring briefly the blue-green-yellow of a normal spring."

Random Excellence: Jose Luis Gonzalez

Linhof Color monorail, 1960
Photo by Jose Luis Gonzalez

TOP reader Jose Luis Gonzalez contacted me this morning to offer some friendly advice, and in the process I learned of his camera collection and the portraits he makes of his collectibles using light-painting techniques. You can view many examples at this 2016 post on Japan Camera Hunter. Great tabletop photography of a lovely camera collection. Nice, all around!

Mike
(Thanks to Jose)

Original contents copyright 2020 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:

Fred Tuman: "That same exact type camera of camera was used every day in my studio from 1986 till 2004. It has bought me my home, paid for my wedding, and purchased five new cars over its lifetime. I paid $450 for it used at Ken Hansen's. When I sold it, with a couple of lenses, I took a trip with my wife to Vienna with the proceeds. Will any of my digital equipment reap the same emotional rewards?"

Peter Komar: "Back when I was shooting medium or large format product photography I absolutely recall the 'Light Wand.' It had many 'light end' attachments and a long tethered fiber optic cable to the base unit. It was quite the rage for a short time and the results were unique as far as product photography was concerned. The images of the classic cameras I would bet were shot using that technique, it was a lengthy process and, as I recall, always shot in very dim light studio settings. Nice to see that technique as I have not seen that in many years."

Paul McEvoy: "That Linhoff Color monorail is the most beautiful camera I've ever seen. I remember lusting over one in my LF days. I don't think there's a better looking camera out there."

Random Excellence: Victor Keller

Photo by Victor Keller

One thing that's dependable on a blog is that one thing leads to another. After I wrote about pool on the 25th of last month, sometime reader Victor Keller sent me a link to a series of pictures he made in pool halls. I guess you have to be a fan to know how cool it is to have, in your portfolio, candid pictures of Efren Reyes practicing...I'd kill for that!

Well, not kill. But you know what I mean. (That's not him in the picture above, by the way.)

Thanks to Victor.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 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.

Please help support The Online Photographer through Patreon

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

Thomas Walsh: "Incredible portfolio, thanks Mike for this post. Keller's work is just plain good."

Random Excellence: Stan Banos

Alamo Square Park, San Francisco

Photo by Stan Banos

-

(posted by) Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 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:

Eric Rose: "Holy crap!! Stan finally gets some long overdue respect!! Way to go buddy!!"

Sid: "Thanks for introducing me to the photographs of Stan Banos who truly deserves great acclaim. His work is superb."

Stan B.: "Honored. The photo was taken on my daily constitutional—about half an hour after reading the 'Picture Hunting' post. A few minutes earlier—nothing but the background (San Francisco's famous Painted Ladies); a few minutes later, devoid the crucial human element. That area, usually crammed with tourists and selfies is now...well, see for yourself. Tech details: Ricoh GR, Elements 9."

[I added the link in that. —Ed.]

John Camp: "Love the suitcase shot. And the Titanic."

Mike adds: Ditto. I think "Security Guy" is classic as well.

Random Excellence: The Last Conversation

I really liked this. I like its use of old photographs and home movies, but that's beside the point really. The subject is genuinely touching.

I hope everyone can see this and I apologize if some can't.

Watch this video on The Scene.

Is this too much about life? Well OK, as David Vestal used to say.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 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.

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Random Excellence: Lake Effect Snow

Photo courtesy NASA

In the third year of its 13-year service life, NASA's Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor, a satellite-borne imager, SeaWIFS for short, captured this fabulous picture of lake-effect snow being created by the Great Lakes, North America's freshwater inland seas. Cold winds sweeping down from the frigid Canadian plains on December 5th, 2000, pick up heat and moisture from Lake Nipigon, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan, creating clouds which deposit snow further downwind.

In this picture you can see the entire State of Wisconsin, from the Western boundary tracing the Mississippi River to the coastline of Lake Michigan, its Eastern boundary. At the crook of the "thumb" is the small city of Green Bay. Chicago, Illinois, the largest city in the American Midwest, is in the clear patch to the left of the lowermost visible portion of the Lake; its effluent registers as a lighter color of blue in the picture. The "Wolf's Head" of Lake Superior is clearly seen.

 The outline of Lake Superior, northernmost of the five Great Lakes, is thought to resemble a wolf's head. Lake Michigan, at the lower left, is the only lake entirely within the boundaries of the United States; the other four lie between the United States and Canada.

SeaWIFS was created to collect ocean biological data and was primarily designed to quantify chlorophyll produced by marine phytoplankton. Its images are in the public domain unless used for commercial purposes. SeaWIFS ended its service life in 2010.

Mike
(Thanks to NASA and Wikipedia)

Original contents copyright 2020 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.

Make it precipitate for TOP through Patreon

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Rob de Loe: "Shout out to the United States and Canada for over a century of successful cooperation managing (and avoiding) water problems across the international boundary! The Boundary Waters Treaty was completed in 1909, and since that day the International Joint Commission (a bi-national body created under the Treaty) has been helping Canada and the US protect and restore the Great Lakes and our other shared boundary waters. If you're not a water person you might not even be aware of this amazing success story.

"P.S. The image is fantastic. I love photographs that are a bit ambiguous and borderline abstract."

Random Excellence: David Saxe

David Saxe, from Dancin'

Santa Fe photographer (and TOP reader) David Saxe says: "Wherever I have been, I have always come across people dancing. In bars, in the street, or at home—people always dance. They dance to express joy, sadness and life itself. In this series of photographs, I explore these rhythms, and passions, of people expressing their joy, while they gently glide along a floor or a street, to the sounds of life."

The whole portfolio should be seen. It's on his website under "Dancin'." It will make you feel a little better!

Mike

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Pierre Charbonneau: "Charming portfolio, classic B&W and a beautiful collection of nice moments. Love it, feel better indeed."

Kenneth Tanaka: "David Saxe does, indeed, have some lovely thematic project work on his site. 'Dancin'' is very good but 'Bad Dreams' is my favorite work shown. (Probably because I did a slightly similar book project titled 'Of Dreams' some years ago.) Terrific, strong work Mr. Saxe."

Michel Hardy-Vallée: "David Saxe is also the brother of Henry Saxe, an important Canadian sculptor."

Random Excellence: Ren Long

...Except I can't show you the picture. You should be able to see it here.

A rare news photograph that manages to be both beautiful and topical. Ballet dancers in Shanghai seem to be weightless and flowing like a strong wash of wind, forming beautiful lines with their bodies and limbs, while their mouths are covered with masks as a precaution against the rapidly spreading COVID-19 coronavirus. More than 3,000 people have now died of the disease; the U.S., Australia, and Thailand recorded their first deaths from the disease over the weekend, and Armenia, Luxembourg, Ecuador and Qatar each reported their first cases. Meanwhile, health officials in the U.S. are requesting that people not buy medical facemasks, because shortages are being caused that could negatively affect medical workers who really need them.

I first saw the photo at the Wall Street Journal. The picture was taken yesterday, which (coincidentally, but fittingly!) was Leap Day. I haven't been able to discover anything about the credited photographer, Ren Long.

Mike

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Three Things That Are Good to Look At

'What you lookin' at?'
Inge Morath, A Llama in Times Square, New York, 1957 ($2,000)

1. Llamas. Magnum is having a sale of New York prints by its members that includes Inge Morath's "A Llama in Times Square." The prints are signed and editioned, signed, or estate stamped, and prices range from $1,250 to $15,000. Included are some very famous pictures indeed: Dennis Stock's iconic (I use the word advisedly!) portrait of James Dean in the rain, Elliott Erwitt's fabulous picture of the man/bulldog (a personal fave), Leonard Freed's wonderful photo of the black kids playing near the fire hydrant, Elliott Landy's photos of Jimi Hendrix, Thomas Hoepker's portraits of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, Eve Arnold's photo of Marilyn Monroe reading James Joyce's Ulysses. And more.

A lot of the lesser-known ones are good to look at too—car buffs will love Erich Hartmann's George Washington Bridge picture. You could hardly put that together for a big-budget movie today! (Disclosure: Erich's son Nick is a good friend of mine, although we live too far apart now to meet regularly for lunch like we used to.)

Really fun to look at. I already knew many of these pictures, of course, but re-acquaintance is fun and I had a blast immersing myself in these for a couple of hours.

2. Cheap old lenses on expensive new cameras. Jonas Rask had a loopy idea. Well, what would you do if you had a medium-format Fuji GFX50s to hand? Probably not what Jonas did. He discovered that you can put many normal and longer 35mm film camera lenses on the mirrorless digital camera with the larger sensor and the image circles will still cover (sometimes with some correction, but still). So he got the bug for adapting old Minolta Rokkor-X film lenses to his big Fuji.

I'd wager not many photographers are looking to put things like $55 lenses on $5,500 cameras, but the results are wonderful and speak for themselves.

It helps that Jonas is one of the few "testers" whose "test shots" I genuinely enjoy. Even if they're only family 'n' friends portraits, he has a style and a point of view and I like it. Good to look at. I love the silhouette one. That is a heck of a fun post.

3. Two mice having a street fight. Wildlife—or West Side Story? "Sam Rowley's 'Station Squabble' has been picked from more than 48,000 images to claim a wildlife photography award from London's Natural History Museum, voted for by the public," writes Rob Picheta at CNN Travel. I like the public's taste! Nice to interpret "wildlife" so broadly, with a soupçon of double entendre thrown in for spice. You can see the nifty winning picture at the link. Wild life indeed. Musta been Saturday night.

A mice....er, nice idea, and good to look at, too. And that never hurts!

Mike
(Thanks to Nico Maijer and Charles Heuer)

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Featured Comments from:

Globules: "A few days ago the CBC radio show 'As It Happens' interviewed Sam Rowley about his winning picture."

Mike replies: Thanks! Here's the link.

Neil Swanson: "I’m in. XF to Minolta adapter ordered. Cheap eBay lens on the way. I have been wanting to try things like this anyway. Oddly I don’t seem to be terribly interested in trying any of my Nikon lenses on the Fuji but maybe after this experiment I will.

"I’m glad you know about, look at and follow Jonas Rask and his reviews and work. I think I’d really like to meet that guy."

Stan B.: "OK...something I'm really not getting here, so I'm (reluctantly—very) putting myself out there to be the royal grand idiot deluxe who stands to be corrected. That is: Just how much in the 'vicinity' of the GWB was that photo taken where all the cars have their steering wheels on the right hand side? Signed, Already Woefully Embarrassed (and nevertheless thankful for the enlightenment)."

Mike replies: Many readers seconded your comment—the JPEG was reversed laterally (and maybe a print too? This can happen when you put a negative in the carrier upside-down). I contacted my friend Nick, the photographer's son, hoping he would contact Magnum, and you'll notice that the photo is right way 'round this morning! So you fixed it, Stan.

Random Excellence: Giants?

Might call this "random interest" rather than excellence, but it's curious. You might want to look at the picture carefully before reading on.

We were talking about the novel Giants in the Earth the other day, and I ran across the old snapshot above on a site called Ipernity. The original poster, Alan Mays, was given it as a Christmas present. A few different elements conspire to create a visual illusion. The small size of the tractor and the boy driving it, the looming hill in the background, and the fact that we can't see the adults' feet can make it read as though the adults, who are actually standing on the far fender of the tractor, are far behind the tractor...and about sixteen feet tall!

Can you see it that way? I have a strong "reality bias" in my mind, and I default to an assumption that adults are adult-sized, so I had to work a little to see the illusion. But it's there, all right. And once I want to see it, I can.

Here's something this made me think of: someone told me last night (my pool league team won 8-1 last night and we're still in first place) that the pool genius Efren Reyes likes to watch amateurs play. The reason is that professionals are so methodical, and know exactly which shots work in which situations (not to mention that they can do every sort of shot) that they're predictable to a degree—they're not often forced to get inventive or creative. Amateurs, on the other hand, get themselves into all sorts of odd or awkward dilemmas and then take highly unconventional routes to try to get themselves out of trouble—and watching them do so is entertaining for Efren.

Analogously, interesting snapshots are rare, perhaps, but I really love them, and for similar reasons—they show all sorts of whimsical and serendipitous oddities and surprises that more practiced photographers know to avoid. I have what amounts to a mini-library of books that feature "found" snapshots.

There's a good book available of early photography from the plains, but I can't find it. And the only pioneer photographer I can think of is Solomon D. Butcher. Population has been in decline on the great plains for years, as people move to places where life is easier.

Speaking of Giants in the Earth, it's been nice to hear that so many readers have indeed "engaged" with works of literature, such as Wayne, who said: "Among my favorite things to experience over and over are Lawrence Durrell's exquisite Alexandria Quartet and just about any Leonard Cohen music. Open to any page of Durrell or set the needle down on any track of Cohen, and I'm done for the day."

From The Alexandria Quartet (I'll just note that the Folio Society editions [OoP] are all illustrated with photographs):

As for me I am neither happy nor unhappy; I lie suspended like a hair or a feather in the cloudy mixtures of memory. I spoke of the uselessness of art but added nothing truthful about its consolations. The solace of such work as I do with brain and heart lies in this—that only there in the silences of the painter or the writer can reality be reordered, reworked and made to show its significant side. Our common actions in reality are simply the sackcloth covering which hides the cloth-of-gold—the meaning of the pattern.

By the way, while we're on quotes, the "Giants" title is from Genesis 6:4 in the KJV: "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." There's a sequel to Giants, called Peder Victorious: A Tale of the Pioneers Twenty Years Later.

Mike

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Random Excellence: Benoit Paille

William Gibson. Photo by Benoit Paillé.

Or not so random—this is the portrait of William Gibson that adorns the article I quoted yesterday. It breaks every rule of portraiture, and it's brilliant. It looks splendid as a full page of the New Yorker print magazine. I can't stop looking at it there.

The head is placed just subtly northwest of dead center in the frame; the flash implies a brief moment of lucidity in gloom; the heavy foliage in the lower right anchors the picture in chaos from which the man emerges, as if previously hidden, and the eye is led further back in space by the perspective distortion of the hulking dark house; everything leads back to the blank dark twilit sky which reveals nothing. The faux "cross-processed" color lends an otherworldly air, and the soft spottiness all over everything—you'd like to think it's snow, but who knows—looks alien. The figure leans in quizzically. The facial expression is enigmatic, blank, but accepting.

Perfection in imperfection. 

Paillé has been on the road living in a camper since 2013. His bio informs us, or rather does not inform us: "Of a disdainful nature, he yearns to be excluded from any renowned circle. Despite his international recognition, Benoit remains humble and open to others. He has the ability to intrude easily in the authentic life of people to wreck and corrupt their traditional habitat with technology. When children ask him what his THC vaporizer machine is, he lies and tells them it’s an asthma device. Wishing to step apart from institutionalized biographies, Benoit is making a lot of efforts to break through. Ambitious he masturbates only once a day. Either way, he’s putting a lot of energy in transgressing conventions. Art sustain him more than leftovers hot-dogs." (Translated, one assumes, from the French.)

Whoever at the New Yorker got the idea to hire Benoit to do the illustration for this article, a pat on the back and big kudos to that person, and to his or her boss or bosses. Inspired choice. Paillé is the ideal portraitist for the enigmatic, influential, cerebral science fiction writer. The portrait alone makes me curious to read Gibson's books. And to see more of Benoit Paillé's work. You will find him on gbuffer, Instagram, flickr, Lensculture, 500px, and elsewhere.

I keep going back to it and it looks more imperfectly perfect every visit, like a jazz piece that is opaque at first and reveals itself only on repeated hearings. Trés bon.

Mike

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Andre Y: "I read that article when it first came out, and really enjoyed it, especially for revealing the catholicity of Gibson’s life and tastes. He does seem to be living the artist’s life many aspire to.

"I believe the colors as they are, aside from contrast, saturation, etc. adjustments, were captured in-camera instead of being shifted in post processing. There were probably two flashes placed on either side of the camera, one with a green gel, and another with a magenta gel. Where light from both flashes, of complementary colors, hit appears without color cast (e.g., his face), but where light from only one flash misses, like the shadows cast by Gibson, the light from the opposite flash then colors the shadows. You can see that shadows, as well as the snowfall, on one side of the photo are green while the other side has a magenta shadow.

"When I use this technique, I’ll often use the white balance control to make sure my white light is white, and then let the other colors fall where they may. And this technique isn’t as exotic as it sounds, as many photographers and filmmakers have done a more subtle version with white balancing a tungsten key light which drives the shadows blue. It’s a cool technique that is effective in certain situations and this portrait is certainly one of them!"

Sree ram Chandran. S: "The pic looks like a snapshot taken with a dinky camera set to auto and then push-processed for revealing the background which unfortunately over-exposed the subject. I apologise, but I cannot see anything great about this photo."

Mike replies: No need for an apology. Your response is as valid as mine.

Nick: "Gibson's books have gotten quieter and more cerebral as he's gotten older, and as much as I loved Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive when I read them about a decade after they were printed, his more recent stuff appeals to me far more now. His 2014 book The Peripheral is a fascinating take on a mode of time travel, with a look at a distant future that follows an entirely too plausible near future. The sequel to it, Agency, has just been released, and I am very much looking forward to it."

Don McConnell: "Wow, thanks for the tip! His Instagram feed is worth a look and I really like his series of images of a lit cube (or what looks like one) in the landscape. Trés bon, as you say!"

[These next two comments came in next to each other:]

Sharon (partial comment): "To me, this portrait is off-putting and I would not want to read this guy's books. I found the photographer's bio to be even more off-putting. But I am allergic to artist statements so there is that."

Zack Schindler: "Easily one of the best bios I have ever read. I burst out laughing whilst reading it. I find that a great photo too. His work on flickr is very different."

Tom Burke: "I like the portrait. William Gibson writes unconventional fiction so it seems appropriate that the portrait should also be unconventional. Actually, I'm intrigued by that smile—is he mocking the viewer ('suckers!')? Being polite ('let's get this over with...')? Or being mysterious ('I know something you don't!')? Given that his persona as a writer has always been removed from that of the typical writer, the mystery and the portrait seem appropriate. Actually, when I say that he writes unconventional fiction, it's probably truer to say that it was unconventional in the 1980s. Today, his style is a mainstream choice, largely because of his work. The portrait reflects what I have always seen as his nature—'Here's what I do, and I'm perfectly relaxed as to whether you like it or not.' The portrait seems to me to transmit at least some of that relaxed attitude. (You may have gathered that I'm a fan.)"

Random Excellence: Jingna Zhang

Photo by Jingna Zhang for ファッション誌 (Vogue Japan)

It's not often I'm bowled over by a fashion photographer, but Jingna Zhang's work is grounded in history yet fresh and distinctive—exploring her extensive website is a treat. She obviously has the artistic touch, but she's also a high-level pro whose clients include Mercedes Benz, Montblanc, and Lancome, and she has multiple covers for top magazines such as Vogue, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar to her credit.

...And that's not the only kind of shooting she's good at. Most fun biographical fact: before becoming a photographer, the 31-year-old Chinese-born Singaporean was a world-class air rifle shooter who represented Singapore at the Commonwealth Games and World Cup.

Want her as your teacher? In case you do, you're in luck—you can sign up any time for an extensive online course at Learn Squared with five hours of lectures, 14 hours of extra content, a prolific community, and more. The lesson topics are: Photography Basics, Equipment and Lighting, Concepts and Casting, Team Building and Planning, The Photoshoot, Post Production, Retouching, and Marketing Your Work.

Here's Jingna's Self-Portrait on her 30th birthday.

Mike
(Inset: Johnannes Vermeer, Girl with Pearl Earring, 1665 [detail])

"Random Excellence" is a series consisting of things Yr. Hmbl. Ed. stumbled upon randomly and liked.

Original contents copyright 2019 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.

Amazon.com • Amazon UK • Amazon Canada
Amazon Germany • B&H Photo • Adorama

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Featured Comments from:

Chris Y.: "Fashion is the Formula One racing of photography. Its advanced technologies and techniques eventually trickle down to us mortals...."

Pierre: "Her work is divine. By the way, she has an excellent article on her blog on making do with what you have. Out of financial necessity, she worked for a long time with one camera, one lens: Canon 350D (Rebel XT for us in the US) and a kit lens. She shows examples of her development as an artist, where one can see she did imaginative work then that most people would be envious of."

Random Excellence: Jason Lindsey

Photo by Jason Lindsey

From photographer Jason Lindsey's campaign for the Wyoming Office of Tourism and Travel Wyoming. If you can read the text, you'll see why it's a cowgirl instead of a cowboy. Who knew that Wyoming was "the Equality State"? Not I. It's a classy, nice-looking ad that doesn't try too hard—that being a good thing.

Jason Lindsey was a photojournalist and agency art director before becoming a commercial assignment pro. He says, "I love shooting in water up to my neck, swimming with sharks, and laying in the mud; but I also clean up pretty nice when I'm shooting in homes and offices! I'm up for anything with an amazing team of people working by my side. There is no better way to live!" He was named as one of the 200 Best Ad Photographers Worldwide by Lürzer's Archive magazine, a trade publication for the advertising industry, in 2018/19. You can see more of his work at his website.

We'll be driving off the mountain when we come
I have vivid memories of vacationing in Wyoming as a kid. We went to a dude ranch called the 7D Ranch, named after crusty old white-haired DeWitt "Dewey" Dominick and his wife Lee and the other five members of the Dominick clan. It was great fun riding horseback in the mountains all week. Dewey's signature trick was to bring newcomers across the mountain range from Cody, the nearest town, pretending to gaze into the distance while the car wandered all over the road. He'd be telling you about a truck of chickens that went over a precipice as the car careened towards the edge of the drop. When you arrived at the ranch, ashen-faced, the rest of the guests would all be sitting in lawn chairs, applauding. You had passed the initiation rite.

Old Dewey is long gone by now—as is Randy, a tough, wiry cowboy who looked like James Dean. Randy used to go on epic benders on the weekends and then guide trail rides on Monday mornings so hung over he made us "dudes" ride in silence. He himself would say nothing but "sh*t," stretching that little epithet out to more syllables than seemed possible. Despite being notorious for driving while flagrantly under the influence, Randy was killed by a drunk driver in Cody when he himself—Randy, I mean—was stone cold sober. He must have been all of 25 by the time he departed for that great watering hole in the sky, or even younger.

Another guest while we were there was Peter Duchin, famous as a high society pianist and the son of 1930s bandleader Eddy Duchin. All I remember about him is that he refused to play the piano for us, saying he was on vacation.

It was also the vacation where my Dad produced his best book of travel photos, at least in my humble opinion.

A great vacation. That's WY, indeed.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2019 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.

B&H Photo • Adorama

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Featured Comments from:

RubyT: "My parents are from Sheridan, and that town is imprinted on my heart. Although I grew up in Texas, we visited my grandparents every summer. I have no interest in Texas, but I am driving to Sheridan the first week of June. Wyoming is my favorite place, and I am concocting a plan to move West next year. Imagine my surprise seeing this at TOP, so soon after it came in my email. I did know it was the Equality State—my mother must've told me from before I can remember. I also turned 19 the last day that 19 was the legal drinking age in Wyoming, the last state to raise the drinking age. I was legal until midnight. They offered me a free anything at the Mint Bar. I had a Coke."