An elusive statue

by Posted in Black & White, Cemeteries, Places Leave a comment
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It’s elusive not because it’s hard to find, but because I find it hard to get a decent picture of it. I’ve loved this statue ever since I started frequenting the nearby cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, NY. That’s almost 17 years now. On a number of occasions I’ve tried to take pictures of it but they never seem to work out (composition is off, light is bad, got the exposure wrong etc.). Today was no exception. I don’t mind the composition and the light wasn’t too bad, but I still got it wrong. I was trying to isolate the statue from the background and selected a wide aperture. Unfortunately I got too little depth of field so the gravestones to the front left are very soft. I was rushing to keep up with my wife and our dog who were disappearing over the horizon so I didn’t take additional shots with varied apertures. Ah well – I guess the statue is not going anywhere (and hopefully I’m not – at least not immediately) so I should have more opportunities. Actually as I look at it now – a day later I find it’s growing on me. The out of focus foreground and background certainly isolate the statue. And who said that things always have to be in focus

The lure of crumbling old builings

by Posted in Photographers, Ruins, Thoughts Leave a comment

Abandoned New York City

Chances are, when you think of New York City, you imagine the large crowds of people, bright city lights, and the familiar humming and buzzing sound of big city life. Even in the subway, the city’s underbelly, New York City still pulses with life. You don’t think about all the desolate warehouses, decaying classrooms, or crumbling psychiatric wards that are sporadically speckled around the city’s five boroughs.

On a whim, and perhaps encouraged by an insatiable curiosity, photographer Will Ellis stepped into one of these abandoned repositories one afternoon. At the time, Ellis was reading a lot of gothic horror books (think Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, etc…), and was drawn to the eerie atmosphere those books were frequently set in. After experiencing that same kind of atmosphere outside the realm of a novel for the first time, Ellis was hooked.

via Explore Crumbling Relics Of Time In Intriguing Photo Series Featuring Abandoned New York City – DIY Photography.

I must admit to being fascinated by old buildings so this post quickly caught my interest. I would disagree with one of the author’s comments however:

It’s interesting to see that, just in the past few years, the internet has become saturated with images of abandoned buildings, leading to the term “ruin porn.” But the pleasure of ruins goes back thousands of years. It plays into this morbid curiosity that is within all of us — a fascination with death and decay that’s just a part of what makes us human.

Yes I’m interested in crumbling old buildings. I also like cemeteries. However, this is not because of a fascination with death and decay. I find crumbling old buildings somewhat romantic. I grew up in the UK and always loved the old castles. I also liked the old Tarzan and Jungle Book movies, which often featured vine encrusted old temples and the like abandoned in the jungle. I like cemeteries because they are usually quiet and peaceful (at least in the rural areas where I live); they have interesting trees, shrubs and plants; I also like the statues and the gravestones with their inscriptions. And the stained glass. I just find them to be beautiful places and it only rarely occurs to me that there are dead people there.

Faucet in the snow

by Posted in Black & White, Landscapes Leave a comment
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Although the weather has improved significantly we still have 2-3 feet of the snow on the ground around here so when I saw this faucet just barely sticking out above the snow it seemed worthy of a photograph. It seemed so incongruous to see something I associate so much with Summer peeping from the Winter Snow.

Waterford Glass Candle Holder

by Posted in Things Leave a comment
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Winter has been harsh this year and it’s been very hard to get out and take pictures so I’d decided to take some of objects around the house. I’d had my eye on the Waterford Glass candle holder for some time but hadn’t gotten around to doing anything about it. The weather has finally improved so I can now get out, but before I do so I decided to finally get around to taking this picture.

Is acquiring high end gear snobbery or does it really make a difference?

by Posted in Photography, Thoughts Leave a comment

The value of experience

I recently came across a post entitled: “Sommelier or Snob” on the “Luminous Landscape” blog. In it the author (Mr. Michael Reichmann) said:

I had dinner with a friend recently; the wine list included bottles ranging from $40 to $400. My friend asked if I had ever had such expensive wines as those on the last page of the list. I replied that I had, and though I love fine wines, especially full-bodied reds, my palette simply was not educated enough to differentiate the more exotic vintages.

I commented that at the retail store I rarely bought anything above $20, because I found more than enough wines in the $15-$20 range to satisfy my everyday tastes.

This then lead to a conversation about cameras and lenses – which is the point of this tale. My friend, who is a quite casual photographer, asked me if the multi-thousand dollar cameras and lenses that I own are worth that expense, or are they, like expensive wines, a matter of – in his word – snobbery?

After some thought, and a sip or two of a very nice California Cabernet that was on the table, I replied that – yes– I usually could tell the difference between images from high-end cameras and lenses vs. those of a less pedigreed lineage. The implication, of course, is that “high-end” is synonymous, much of the time, with “expensive“.

He goes on to say:

Similarly, a sommelier, or someone for whom wine is a passion and also likely a profession, can tell the difference between types, vintages, and other variables, including price point, while I can’t. In each instance one of us is a pro and the other is an amateur, with all that those words entail in terms of training, experience and taste.

And concludes with:

So to argue whether a wine or a lens is worth a certain price requires that one understand the background of the person making the argument. If they have the credentials, and make an observation or judgment on something within their field of expertise, then maybe one should listen-up. If they’re a neophyte with an opinion, and not much else, then maybe just nod, smile, and have another sip of wine.

It seems to me that there are three types of people: 1) Those who don’t know much about a particular topic, but who within the limits of their budgets and their knowledge do that best that they can; 2) Those who are really invested in a particular topic, have considerable knowledge and experience and who arguably know the finer points: 3) Those who don’t know much but pretend that that do: poseurs. I fall (I hope) into the first category.

Can I tell the difference between high end gear and low end gear? Up to a point yes. I can certainly tell the difference between photographs I took with low end, small sensor compact cameras (e.g. the Panasonic Lumix ZS3 and ZS7 that I used to have) and the somewhat higher end (but still not really high end Sony RX100 and Nex5N) cameras that I now use. Could I tell the difference between a high end Nikon camera and a REALLY high end Nikon camera? I doubt it.

And does it really matter? Isn’t it really about the resulting image? I’m in two minds about this one. If you make your money taking pictures then I imagine that you will want cameras with great image quality; which are convenient to use; which are protected against the elements; which will run forever etc. and that to get this you will need a considerable financial investment. I can also imagine that you will probably need the best lenses e.g. for sports photography you will undoubtedly need long fast, long focal length lenses and these don’t come cheap.

However, most of us are not professional photographers and can’t afford this kind of investment so we do what we can. This doesn’t mean that we can’t make decent pictures. I used to carry my Pansonic Lumix ZS cameras with me everywhere and so took a lot of pictures with them – some of which I really like even as I acknowledge the less than stellar image quality (particularly under certain conditions). I even have some pictures taken with an ancient Iphone 3GS that I quite like. Would I want to take pictures of a hunting Cheetah with it? Not a chance (but then we don’t get a lot of hunting cheetahs in NY state) but within it’s limits and my intended purpose (e.g. web sharing and small prints) it can be fine.

Finally I’m always suspicious of people who seem to be saying “I have the skills, the knowledge and the experience and you don’t so keep your opinions to yourself”. In my former professional life (not at all related to photography) I met quite a lot of people who made this type of claim and in many cases this did not lead to their opinions being worth listening to. Sometimes twenty years of experience is really one year of experience 20 times. I’m not at all implying that this is the case with Mr. Reichmann who seems to be incredibly knowledgeable and experienced and whose articles I always read with great pleasure. I merely suggest that not all of those who claim experience and knowledge have it.

On the other hand some of us don’t have great experience or knowledge, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that we have nothing to say and should keep silent.