witness weather’s work.
solid, water wed with wreckage,
a withered wind whipped leaf
within a well-worn wrapper.
winter will not wait.
WHAM!
a wizard will work this into a range hood
wrought worthy of a warm wok.
(click photograph for larger view)
Leica M8, 50 mm Summilux Asph
(click photograph for larger view)
Leica M8, 28 mm Summicron Asph
summer departed
yet through memories and dreams
float within this time
(click photograph for larger view)
Leica M8, 28 mm Summicron Asph
This past Saturday I had the opportunity to photograph the beautiufl fireplace surround, hand forged by Nathaniel Reinartz; and installed in an equally gorgeous arts and crafts style home located on Milwaukee’s East side. Nathaniel brought many of the formal details of the original woodwork, as well as the masonry, into his metal work. Additional details of this piece (as well as some of Nathaniel’s railings).
Leica R8/DMR, 21 mm Super Angulon
Leica R8/DMR, 35 mm Summilux
our very last blooms
in slowed, yet inevitable, transition
toward future conditions
(click photograph for larger view)
Leica R8/DMR, 100 mm Apo-Macro Elmarit
from cabinets of curiosities
(click photograph for larger view)
Leica R8/DMR, 35 mm Summicron
The flowering plants have fallen over, wilted, dried, gone to seed. Very little green remains “outside” — only the pines and some grasses. The days have become short and the light, more often than not, overcast, dull and gray. If I continue to produce a flower photograph each Friday it will require more planning; no longer simply a stroll within so-called nature. From now until spring I’ll need to travel to a shop and make both economic and aesthetic choices.
This morning it was 32 degrees F outside so I decided to shift into this new way of thinking about Friday flowers by bringing one of the last blooms from a porch plant inside for visual exploration. As soon as I dropped the bloom into water the photograph appeared.
(click photograph for larger view)
Leica R8/DMR, 100 mm Apo-Macro Elmarit
I’ve posted this first example, of using a photograph as a jumping off point to create a digital illustration which suggests a work created with traditional art materials (such as pencils, brushes and/or paints), as a response to a conversation with another photographer. I contend that one has to use the digital tools to move the photograph sufficiently beyond what a photograph “looks like” and enough toward what a drawing or painting “looks like.” I believe this requires the use of hand gestures of sufficient quantity and quality (and well beyond just hitting filter effect buttons) in order to fool the eye and mind. Does this example achieve that desire? I think “just.”
Wacom Tablet, Photoshop, and Painter
Below are two of my early attempts at drawing on the iPad; examples of taking it the other way. Meaning “drawn” on the iPad and exported through Lightroom. We find ourselves in truly interesting digital imaging times.
Griffin Stylus on iPad (drawn from life)
(somehow this photograph seems like an apt metaphor for our recent election results — ’nuff said)
(click photograph for larger view)
Leica M8, 28 mm Summicron Asph
Photographers may document their lives; where they travel; who they meet; what they see. Sometimes they attempt to create a photograph that may qualify as “art” or even “Art.” Sometimes they create fictional photographs; or advertising; or portraits; or illustrations; or they may document wars, disasters, weddings, funerals and other events of every sort.
The times, when they click the shutter simply because “a photograph” appears before them demanding existence, as such (and for no other purpose whatsoever), may say the most about both the photographer and photography. Just a photograph. An object. To look at. Nothing more. Nothing less.
(click photograph for larger view)
Leica M8, 28 mm Summicron Asph