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PictureADay projects: January 2010: Left objects

J

JimCollum

pro member
I've decided to try a 365 project this year.. An image a day. Most of my work is done in a 'project' mode, so I've decided to break the year down by monthly projects.. each one themed. The idea is to limit myself to a single lens/camera/processing style. I'll be using a Zeiss 110/2 and Leaf 75s back, everything shot wide open, and everything shot 'square/full frame (I've added a square mask to the Leaf back so that i'm capturing the image in the square crop.)

Asher has asked me if I would post them here as well (i'm using the Blipfoto site as the main method of journaling it)

The note for the January theme:


January 2010
We are getting ready to move from our current house over the next couple months. We've been living here for the last 5 years... so this month will be documenting the land around our home.

note.. i have been asked to add a note from my wife :)
I feel a strong need to jump in here and say that these pictures are of 'neighboring' land and jim's wife is really not a hillbilly. :0)
 
J

JimCollum

pro member
Jan 1 2010
aptus_019081.jpg



Jan 2 2010
aptus_019102.jpg



Jan 3 2010
pday003.jpg



Jan 4 2010
pday001.jpg
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jim,

This is already a superb series and has to make people sit back and wonder if they ever learned a thing about photography. I'm so impressed and delighted to see your work here. I plan to comment on groups. Just right now I have to get close to the work and deliver on two projects myself. I hope folk will not be intimidated by the amount and quality of the work and will give brief reactions.

Asher
 
C

Charles L Webster

pro member
I'm seriously impressed, especially by Jan 3, 8, and 9. Very nice stuff. I like very much your choice of b/w, and toning. Thanks for sharing this series with us. I look forward to seeing more.
 
J

janet Smith

pro member
Hi Jim

What a superb series, outstanding images of the ordinary everyday stuff that surrounds us, hard to choose between them, but if I had to choose Jan 1, 4, 6 & 15 would be the ones I'd choose, inspirational!
 
R

Ruben Alfu

New member
Hello Jim, these images are a pleasure to contemplate, I know I´ll return to them again and again. The context of the project, the story behind it makes it even more engaging. Thanks.
 
M

Mike Shimwell

New member
Jim,

Just a quick note to say these are lovely - great tonality and drawing, combined with strong composition.

Very evocative, even not having been there.

Thanks

Mike
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
You're going to miss this old neighborhood. Who knows if you don't move soon, you might just stay for all the photo opportunities you find. Good work.

Asher
 
J

JimCollum

pro member
Asher Kelman said:
You're going to miss this old neighborhood. Who knows if you don't move soon, you might just stay for all the photo opportunities you find. Good work.

Asher
Click to expand...

The other project I'm doing is on the place I'm moving to :) , Felton .. I had to make sure the now area was photogenic :)
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
JimCollum said:


Jan 17
aptus_019900.jpg



Jan 18
aptus_019918.jpg



Jan 19
aptus_019973.jpg



Jan 20
aptus_020056.jpg



​

Jim,

These 4 pictures, natural and manufactured objects all have a motif or crossing repeated elements and they work with each other. Each one helps the description of the group Good motif, each bringing different presents to the party.

Asher
Click to expand...
 
K

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Jim; Some nice work here but as a body it's just a bit sleepy and visually tiresome. Since this is a purely casual project why not break loose and get out of your comfort zone? Let go of the artificial sweeteners (ex: the sepia toning, the vignetting) and take a month or so to try your luck at very different compositions, perhaps even some (gasp) color?

It couldn't hoit.
 
J

JimCollum

pro member
Ken Tanaka said:
Jim; Some nice work here but as a body it's just a bit sleepy and visually tiresome. Since this is a purely casual project why not break loose and get out of your comfort zone? Let go of the artificial sweeteners (ex: the sepia toning, the vignetting) and take a month or so to try your luck at very different compositions, perhaps even some (gasp) color?

It couldn't hoit.
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, B/W is breaking loose to something different.. i'm normally a color person.

However, my color is probably just as 'sleepy' :)
(a sample of my vivid color... )
aptus75_001510.jpg



When i'm doing personal work, it's usually a match for my personality/nature. When experimenting, it's usually in line with some change of mood/situation in my life.

Most of my images are normally for printing, with the method of choice being platinum/palladium. There, I have the choice of neutral or very warm, and typically choose based on the feeling i get when taking it... so i've always felt that warm is just as valid as neutral (the Glacial Sea IR series is all higher contrast, dead neutral work)

I do find the 'artificial sweetener' comment very ironic... I've always felt that way about the saturated landscape shots.... and now it's come round to bite me on the ass :) I'l accept that without debate!


If i'm doing client/professional work, then I'll use color to match the client's needs...

l1019272.jpg



and thank you for looking and thinking about them enough to offer your opinion.. I'd *much* rather read that than 'nice pics'

jim
 
K

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Asher Kelman said:
Jan 20

Ken,

So would you call this "sleepy"?

Asher
Click to expand...
This is a very quiet image, as all of Jim's images posted here have been. Still lifes and narrow landscapes/vegetation studies. They are very calm, perfectly appropriate for display in a medical facility. (I don't mean this as a negative comment,)

But it just seems that Jim's doing the same image over and over and over. He's also applying the same effects (which I call "artificial sweeteners") which begin to look strained and saccharine. He just seems to be in Rutsville and is not moving his photographic vision or craft forward an iota.

Break loose, Jim! Go crazy! Try new things! Get out of the backyard...or at least move to a neighbor's backyard! There are just so many subjects and techniques to explore with a camera it seems a shame to just shoot passport photos all day every day for a year.
 
J

JimCollum

pro member
Ken Tanaka said:
This is a very quiet image, as all of Jim's images posted here have been. Still lifes and narrow landscapes/vegetation studies. They are very calm, perfectly appropriate for display in a medical facility. (I don't mean this as a negative comment,)

But it just seems that Jim's doing the same image over and over and over. He's also applying the same effects (which I call "artificial sweeteners") which begin to look strained and saccharine. He just seems to be in Rutsville and is not moving his photographic vision or craft forward an iota.

Break loose, Jim! Go crazy! Try new things! Get out of the backyard...or at least move to a neighbor's backyard! There are just so many subjects and techniques to explore with a camera it seems a shame to just shoot passport photos all day every day for a year.
Click to expand...

The POD (pic-o-day) i've committed on doing is going to be in sort of 'project' mode... with each month a themed portfolio. (and funny enough.. the month i've been posting.. Jan.. has been all in my and neighbor's back yard :D

Still trying to figure out what Feb will be

(not sure what i can do about 'quiet' though.. that's just me, and for my own work.. I can't do anything else but what comes from within)
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Ken,

I like the fact that we stand in different positions looking at the same work. You certainly have the benefit of experience as a photographer, collector and collaborating with other artists. I always learn a little each time we are apparently seeing the same thing.

The way I see it, Jim is doing a survey and inventory of sorts of the "old" in his crummy locale he has liked to photograph. He's moving away shortly. Then someone will clean it up! It will all be gone. As such it might be rather personal, memento-like and even sleepy and quiet. Still, it also is his documentary. As a complete collection it might be very interesting to a few others too. Then Jim will no doubt move on. This is something to get out of one's system.

I quite like some of the pictures, and not for being in a doctors office. The junk would be far to negative for that. The broom by the top of the stairs is one such picture that has demands on my attention and is worth coming back for. I am reserving judgement on the entire project as it will depend on what ideas are, in the end, justified by this work.

BTW, his color is usually muted. In fact it's often just a glimpse of color on top of a platinum.

I think it's good to challenge Jim but I'm enjoying the array right now. Why does it have to be all cutting edge, utterly new?

Asher
 
K

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Jim: My remarks are intended to be encouraging rather than critical. That is, I'm merely encouraging you to explore. Even if you want to cling to these same subjects why not try different lighting, for example? Again, just encouraging you to find new voices "coming from within". They're there.
 
J

JimCollum

pro member
Ken Tanaka said:
Jim: My remarks are intended to be encouraging rather than critical. That is, I'm merely encouraging you to explore. Even if you want to cling to these same subjects why not try different lighting, for example? Again, just encouraging you to find new voices "coming from within". They're there.
Click to expand...

Ken,

I didin't take them as critical.. but as good advice. I've never seen the advice you give as anything less then a sincere desire to help someone with what you've learned. I do think in some ways we come at photography differently (probably.. since we all have different motivations bringing us here). I almost always work in projects, which typically means a directed focus on technique and subject. I've spent most of the last two decades working on technique and developing a palate from which to work. What's typically driving my work now is emotional, rather than technical. The work produced and who i am are pretty inseparable.. I could no more shoot something or myself that I wasn't feeling, than walk into a party and become the center of attention (I'm very much an introvert). That isn't to say I couldn't shoot that for someone else (as in a client). There aren't many styles/looks that I couldn't shoot *for* someone. That's never been the hard part of photography.. what's been hard has been connecting it more intimately with who I am, what I'm feeling , and where I want to go (therapy for the soul).

I do wish to continue hearing your impressions of my work, both from a technical perspective.. but more importantly to me.. what feelings they might impart.

thanks for taking your time to look and think about the images!

jim
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief



Jan 11 2010
aptus_019484.jpg

Jim,

When there's B&W we can look at shapes, textures and what ideas come to mind. The presentation of just a portion of a leafy garden/woodland floor and trees in an arc out of focus sets a stage for out minds to bring meaning to this simple bare world.

There are two parts here I like. The foreground with leaves, is very limited as if there's a large drop-off beyond the edge. So this is like a platform or even an alter for offering things to man or to heaven. Maybe it's even communal. The trees are can be thought of some kind of assembly.




Jan 12 2010
pday014.jpg


​
[/QUOTE]

This next picture is technically well drawn with pleasing abundance in its taking up form in space. I get the feeling of abundance and a great harvest. where did you find this in January?

Asher
 
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P

Paul Abbott

New member
There are a few here that I like a lot. I'm not sure about the processing and cropping of every image in exactly the same way though.

The ones I like in particular are:

Jan 11 2010
aptus_019484.jpg


Jan 13 2010
aptus_019625.jpg


Jan 15 2010
aptus_019848.jpg


Jan 16 2010
pday016.jpg
 
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J

Jim Galli

Member
All of us tend to like the things that are closest to our own perspective, me included. Ken (I think) comes from an inescapable perspective of making salable photographs with strong contrasting bold colors that would fit very well in a good stock agencies portfolio of pictures people need in order to sell things.

Jim's is closer to mine perhaps. Exploring the voice that black and white brings to a subject and tweaking it to speak. That said, most of these are cold and boring to me. But a wet January in the woods is dark and cold and boring. They just make me want to come indoors and stand by a wood fire for a time.

That said, there are some stand-outs at least for me. 13, 15, 18, 20, and 26 so far. Of that group there is one that I'd put on the wall. That porch on the 20th has everything. Superb tones and the tension of a female form in the midst of a male world. I love it. The anglular symmetry broken perfectly by the sweep of the broom. And it has interest. I want to know if the dark places in the floor are oil, or water. I want to know when the structure was built. Is it deserted or just mostly forgotten. That broom seems to have leaned there a long while.

I'll add my voice to the perspective that blown out impossible colors which sell to the unwashed masses are a weariness these days. No right, no wrong, just where I'm at in all of this.
 
K

Ken Tanaka

pro member
JimCollum said:
Ken,

... I almost always work in projects, which typically means a directed focus on technique and subject. I've spent most of the last two decades working on technique and developing a palate from which to work. What's typically driving my work now is emotional, rather than technical.
...
Click to expand...

Jim,
Placing your P.A.D. initiative into the context of a "project" alters my earlier remarks, at least to the degree that I entreat you to play a new game. I am a very enthusiastic proponent of pursing photographic projects, big and small. So to the extent that your 2010 work represents a serial project devoted to creating deeply romantic, über-sentimental, and quite morose imagery that often very nearly leaps from the optic nerve to the olfactory organs (i.e. I swear that some of these images carry the sweet, dank scent of wet organic material as I view them) you have succeeded wildly.

Re: Jim Galli's remark: "Ken (I think) comes from an inescapable perspective of making salable photographs with strong contrasting bold colors that would fit very well in a good stock agencies portfolio of pictures people need in order to sell things."

Certainly not, Jim. You could not be more wrong. (I actually do not participate with the stock photo business.) In addition to my own photography I spend much time with photography's history as well as its present. Lately I seem to spend a bit of time with museum curators (who, as a group, are actually art historians rather than photographers) and collectors.

No, re-read my remarks. I was simply encouraging Jim to use what he called "photo a day" time to break into exploring new (to him) styles, new intellectual propulsion, new techniques which he might not otherwise have/make time to explore normally. I did not offer any specific creative directions. If he wants to create images that mimic Harry Callahan or Jacques Daguerre fine with me.

Jim G.: "I'll add my voice to the perspective that blown out impossible colors which sell to the unwashed masses are a weariness these days."
I've really no idea what this means...it's quite a stew. I don't know if I agree or disagree. I see a great deal of photography (beyond m own) in-person; that is, in print form. So my own opinions are formed mostly on that basis. My own advocacy and aversions are based on the creative intellectual basis, and the technical execution, for work irrespective of its colors or format.

So I approach art photography in exactly the same manner as I approach all art; with an open mind to the message. To the extent that some types of art can engage "the unwashed masses", that's fine with me, too. One thought often seeds another, then another,...
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Ken,

Actually mentioning Harry Callahan appears apt. Both seem to share some of the same introspective views on life and the subjects around them. The world is not way out in the sky or jungle and absent are pictures of a lost child running to her mother tears streaming down her face or the man skipping across the puddles and his reflection. Rather there are the landscapes around him and the objects from his neighborhood, even f they are already dead.

Asher
 
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