tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-353569452011-04-21T19:37:01.330-07:00Musings on photography from an artist perspective and art from a photographer perspectivePaul Butzinoreply@blogger.comBlogger901100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-79439608382902059742007-01-05T19:33:00.000-08:002007-01-05T19:39:04.959-08:00

My many problems with Blogger have convinced me that this can't be the long term home for this blog. The new location is http://photomusings.wordpress.comPosts that are here will remain here for reference. Eventually I'll copy them over to the new location as well.If you have links to this blog, I'd appreciate it if you'd update them to point to the new location. Thanks!

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-41266186183608544662006-12-29T10:48:00.000-08:002006-12-29T11:06:32.266-08:00

Here's my nomination for 'Best bit of photo gear I bought this past year: it's the 30" Apple Cinema HD monitor. Expensive, yes, but not much more expensive that buying, say, two 21" monitors and running a dual-headed setup, and you end up with a single display surface, without a mullion in the middle of your 'window'.The display is sharp and contrasty. I have no trouble profiling it with my

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-74843849227606918572006-12-28T14:11:00.000-08:002006-12-28T14:44:03.515-08:00

Way back when, some friends and I held a friendly informal competition to see who would come up with the 'best' bafflegab example of an artist statment. Here's my entry. Each paragraph is followed by a translation into English (in italics).I am primarily engaged in the production of images that might be classified as portraying non-sentient, semi-static objective reality. In particular, the works

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-49997280335340904312006-12-28T10:11:00.000-08:002006-12-28T10:19:15.160-08:00

Pulitzer prize winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks had a cool idea - write 365 very short plays, then have them performed over the course of the year, one play per day, all over the US.On Tuesday, the Seattle peformance of the play du jour was performed at the ice rink in Seattle Center. Details at http://web.mac.com/joshbeerman1/iWeb/Josh%20Beerman%3A%20Writer%20and%20Director/365%20Days-365%

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-35535387995160240632006-12-27T16:49:00.000-08:002006-12-27T16:50:46.215-08:00

Go to http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/crisis-of-unspecified-specificity.htmlRead the whole thing. Including the comments.Priceless, that is.

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-70396653591894224492006-12-27T15:40:00.000-08:002006-12-27T16:24:26.008-08:00

I'd love to look at the work on Ian Baguskas website.Unfortunately, his website uses Flash. I hate Macromedia flash websites. My incandescent hatred of Flash based websites is brighter than a thousand suns. Heck, it's brighter than a million suns. I hate them so, I cannot express my incandescent hatred of Flash websites in mere words.I hate the way every Flash website designer feels he/she

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-87791856252033367952006-12-27T13:02:00.000-08:002006-12-27T13:18:20.482-08:00

The magazine Shock is folding.You'll recall that Shock is the Hachette Filipacchi Media attempt to introduce a version of the French magazine Choc to the American market, and that Hachette Filipacchi Media saw fit to use as the cover photo of the premiere issue(without obtaining permission) Michael Yon's photo of an American soldier cradling an Iraqi girl who was fatally wounded in a terrorist

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-67436821683755932042006-12-26T11:46:00.000-08:002006-12-26T14:04:20.976-08:00

Because it's the end of the year, I'm in the thick of my annual assessment of stuff. Looking over my collection of images made over the last year (by viewing them in Bridge), and looking at images from previous years, I notice a couple differences.When I was working primarily in large format, I routinely made 'in camera dups'. That is, once the camera was set up, I routinely exposed two sheets of

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-38937054609122715782006-12-24T18:33:00.000-08:002006-12-24T18:35:19.977-08:00

Have a Merry Christmas!

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-3628376473557955602006-12-23T16:18:00.000-08:002006-12-23T16:42:01.864-08:00

This is a view of what my car looked like for several days - all the ordinary stuff shoved forward (see dog bowl, tennis ball throwing device, etc.) and the wayback filled with chainsaw stuff. I spent a lot of time cutting up downed trees.This is a view of the scene that's now where the image from this post was made. It's hard to tell from this photo, but this is a pretty big area where

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-56316939049004912402006-12-21T09:00:00.000-08:002006-12-21T09:01:40.514-08:00

Well, I have power, and I have propane, but now the internet connection is down. Sheesh.

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-30800926268280963892006-12-19T20:29:00.000-08:002006-12-19T20:39:58.959-08:00

As folks may know, we got whammied by the windstorm that hit the Puget Sound area last Thursday night. Our power has been out since 11:30pm last Thursday; fortunately, our generator ran flawlessly for five days straight.Puget Sound Energy restored our power feed at about 1:30 pm today. Just a few hours later, we took a delivery of propane (which runs our heat, generator, etc.) So even if we

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-34832523792631722632006-12-16T15:59:00.000-08:002006-12-16T16:10:58.982-08:00

There have been no posts for the last few days because my area was hit by a massive windstorm. Power is out to a large number (hundreds of thousands) of people.There's quite a bit of damage in the forest right where I live; the stretch of forest where this photo was made was just south (easy walking distance) of my home. It was essentially destroyed - I'm guessing that 50% of the trees are down

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1166136815318131152006-12-14T14:25:00.000-08:002006-12-14T14:53:35.326-08:00

In an recent interview, the playwright John Patrick Shanley said "I'm very aware that debate has become the form of the communication, like on Crossfire. There is no room or value placed on doubt, which is one of the hallmarks of a wise man. It's getting harder and harder in this society to find a place for spacious, true intellectual exchange. It's all becoming about who won the argument, which

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1165948576391329152006-12-13T07:18:00.000-08:002006-12-13T07:19:16.340-08:00

In this post on how no one buys art, Andy Chen comments "After mulling it over some more, it seems that only buying art for decor, status, or envy is rather pessimistic. Pessimism doesn't make something untrue but.... 'Oops. I think I've not been very clear. Probably that post sounded depressing; it's not the facts that are depressing, it's just that it's winter and the days have been dark and

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1165940105295689642006-12-12T07:32:00.000-08:002006-12-12T09:04:57.943-08:00

It's mid-December, so naturally my mind is turning toward New Years Resolutions. Along with the perennial 'lose weight' and 'exercise more' and 'eat right', I think my biggie is going to be this: stop worrying about resolution.Here's why - not too long ago, I visited Tracy Helgeson's web site, and I looked at her paintings, and the experience seems to have completely redrawn my opinions about

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1165882204571852892006-12-11T15:39:00.000-08:002006-12-11T16:10:04.583-08:00

Lots of discussion over on Art and Perception about selling, selling, selling. About how crazy artists can't sell. About how selling is where it's at, man.And here's my contribution to the discussion. It's free, and it's worth at least that much. My observation about selling art is this:Nobody buys art. Ok, that's not exactly true. There are art collectors, and they buy art. But except for the 6

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1165600017637390942006-12-08T09:39:00.000-08:002006-12-08T09:46:57.636-08:00

If you don't read Colin Jago's Photostream blog, you should wander over there and read The Grass is Always Beautiful. I had a similar post about 80% written but Colin has done a much nicer job than I was doing, so just go over there and read his. And then, at the end, add a line that says "Yeah, me too - Paul Butzi" at the end.I've fallen in love with Tracy Helgeson's blog, both because I think

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1165598789271860202006-12-08T08:49:00.000-08:002006-12-08T09:26:29.820-08:00

If I might steal a phrase from Winston Churchill, Photoshop is the worst photo editing software ever - except for all the others.It's not just big, it's bloated. It's hellaciously expensive. It runs like a pig, it seems to consume vastly more resources than ought to be needed. The interface, which has not so much been designed as much as it sort of accreted over time, is non-orthogonal,

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1165472343469523962006-12-06T22:17:00.000-08:002006-12-08T09:28:39.560-08:00

One of the more valuable (to me) artworks in my studio is a linoleum print made by Dan Cautrell, a artist I admire a lot and know just a bit. The print readsStatement of PurposeI do the work because I want to.I do the work because I like to.I do the work because I know how.I do the work to explore myself.I do the work to engage others with thought, word, and deed.I do the work because I have

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1165367249965141872006-12-05T14:55:00.000-08:002006-12-05T17:07:30.133-08:00

I like knowing what I'm doing. I like the clarity of setting down to a defined task. I don't much care for muddling along when I don't understand the goals. I don't demand that goals be concrete, but it's hard for me when I haven't got an articulated direction. It used to drive me nuts when other people's goals didn't match my goals. I've gotten better about that, or at least more realistic about

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1165257197563580462006-12-04T10:28:00.000-08:002006-12-04T10:33:17.570-08:00

No posts for a bit, while I figure some things out.

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1164839630895044162006-12-01T07:28:00.000-08:002006-12-01T07:31:50.506-08:00

Take a look at the sketch above. Ask yourself if the artist is talented, or untalented, and try to articulate your reasons.Does your opinion of the talent possessed by this artist change when I tell you that the artist was 27 years old when he made the sketch? If a 27 year old man came to you, handed you this sketch, and told you he intended to pursue art as the primary focus of his life, what

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1164909766024149472006-11-30T10:00:00.000-08:002006-11-30T10:04:09.290-08:00

Arthur, in the comments to this post over on Art and Perception, wroteThis is so, I think, because great (or even merely good) art is not primarily concerned with presenting literal truth. (This is more the role of science and philosophy). Rather, the role of art is to present compelling fictions. By “fiction”, I don’t mean necessarily a conventional narrative. I mean that works of art create

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1164846170632644022006-11-29T15:57:00.000-08:002006-11-29T16:22:50.663-08:00

This past Thanksgiving, we traveled to Clarks Summit, PA, where we visited with family. We had, as Arlo put it, a Thanksgiving Dinner that Couldn't Be Beat.While I was at my sister's house, I had my usual need for a little solitude and quiet. Just around sunset, I took a little solo stroll, taking along my Canon A95. I took a lot of photos, almost all of which were complete dreck. The one above

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1164759320295814142006-11-29T07:50:00.000-08:002006-11-29T16:23:44.256-08:00

This past weekend, I bought copy of the George Tice Common Mementos Lodima Press portfolio book. (Lodima Press is the outfit started by/owned by/run by Michael Smith/Paula Chamlee).This little book (more a large pamphlet, really) contains 16 photos, done by Tice between 1967 and 1999.Beautiful photos.Tice writes:Common Mementos is akin to a short story, a short film, and essay. It si my attempt

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1164739017098637682006-11-28T09:30:00.000-08:002006-11-28T11:03:55.610-08:00

Interesting comments on my post on Talent, including this post over at The Landscapist. Since I am snowbound, I thought I'd take a bit of time and try to respond to some of this directly.Since Ed Richards comments seem to summarize the drift of the argument, I'll cite him here:I disagree - you do not get to be Mozart or Rubens or Stravinsky or Feynman, or fill in the blank other great artists

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163969035931471602006-11-27T06:30:00.000-08:002006-11-27T04:26:43.020-08:00

It's illuminating to consider what aspects of the artmaking process you can control directly, and which aspects you can't.Things you can control directly: when you pick up the camera (or step up to the easel, or pick up the sketchbook...)how long you spend with the camera in your handswhat you point the camera atwhen you let the shutter gohow you interpret the images (in the darkroom, or on the

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1164290678879075592006-11-23T06:03:00.000-08:002006-11-23T06:04:38.893-08:00

In his book The View from the Studio Door, Ted Orland goes on at length about the function of Art in society. In particular, this passage caught my attention:Most historical artwork played a role in society or religion or both. There's pretty good evidence that Bach himself understood that to make work that mattered meant addressing art at every level - from the purely technical to the completely

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1164161215511828102006-11-22T05:55:00.000-08:002006-11-22T06:04:33.010-08:00

I hear a lot about talent. So-and-So is hugely talented, they say, and that explains why their art is so damn good. I think the whole talent thing is a myth. At least, I think that talent is vastly over-rated.Let's suppose that we say that someone has 'talent' or 'natural ability' when they start out the learning process ahead of most folks. That's nice, isn't it? They get a head start. A head

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1164147177216879242006-11-21T14:09:00.000-08:002006-11-21T14:12:57.236-08:00

I'm a bit of a jazz fan. One of the things I've noticed about the history of jazz is that it started out very accessible. I've got a CD of Louis Armstrong and his sidemen playing songs by W. C. Handy, and I'll bet that there isn't a human on the planet who can't appreciate that music. It's straight ahead, full of energy, and the lyrics of Handy's songs speak to us directly about the human

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163985281616640962006-11-20T07:00:00.000-08:002006-11-20T09:01:56.866-08:00

In one of the books I read recently, the author describes going on a mushroom hunting walk with a mushroom expert. As they walked through the woods, the author couldn't find ANY mushrooms. Yet, around every turn in the trail, the mushroom expert pointed out likely mushroom spots, and sure enough, in each spot, there were mushrooms.What was the difference between the author of the book and the

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163971680076491592006-11-19T13:12:00.000-08:002006-11-19T13:28:00.086-08:00

Photographer Doug Plummer is also a birdwatcher. He's not a birdwatcher in the sense I am (I watch the birds caper about outside my studio window and give them names like Manny, Moe, and Jack, the three Stellar's Jays that live near my home). He's a birdwatcher in the 'read about a bird on a mailing list, head out to go see it' sense. You can read about one of his recent birdwatching

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163792978783125422006-11-17T11:45:00.000-08:002006-11-17T11:49:38.790-08:00

Two interesting blog posts that are worth reading (and then keeping an eye on):At The Landscapist, this thread touching on how the current popular style of landscape photography often seems to fail to capture a sense of place.And over at Art and Perception, the beginning of what I think will be an interesting discussion on "What makes good landscapes".

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163733597786618092006-11-16T19:19:00.000-08:002006-11-17T10:13:29.463-08:00

Somewhere recently (can't quite remember where) I read a comment that photographers, as a rule, rarely show work that is 'in progress'.I suspect that's true, but I also suspect that it's not a good thing. One of the things I most valued about the Monday Night Group (see also this) was that it offered a way to easily (and with relatively low emotional risk) get feedback on work that wasn't

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163717816650238982006-11-16T14:39:00.000-08:002006-11-16T15:02:18.493-08:00

Brooks Jensen’s’ editorial column in the Nov-Dec Lenswork and Colin Jago’s post on Photostream, along with Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert have had me thinking hard about the effects of the ‘coming flood of photographs’ enabled by digital photography.The naïve expectation is that the photographic future will be just like the photographic present, only more so. If you made 1000 of photos

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163714416664276212006-11-16T13:59:00.000-08:002006-11-16T14:00:16.673-08:00

It appears that Blogger just dropped the post I'd written for today.How very.... frustrating.

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163703154008507712006-11-16T10:50:00.000-08:002006-11-16T14:00:46.213-08:00

It is Thursday, and lo, there is indeed another of my posts on Art and Perception.

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163545601653477232006-11-14T14:33:00.000-08:002006-11-15T08:21:49.360-08:00

I've gone back several times to re-read this post on The Online Photographer.In it, Mike Johnston writesOnce you've seen "enough" photography, then you start to realize that this competence isn't enough. You start to get bored with the obvious. It's not enough for a photographer to do what lots of photographers have already done. New photographers like to make photographs that work by

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163543127957280952006-11-14T14:05:00.000-08:002006-11-14T14:26:43.563-08:00

I stumbled on The Landscapists yesterday, I don't remember my path to finding it. It's a relatively new (and very interesting) blog.I especially enjoyed this post, about 'quiet' photography. I'm a fan of what I think of as quiet photography - and to the extent that the web seems to push things away from that direction, I am anxious about the impact of the web (and photoblogs).I was especially

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163534803101340422006-11-14T11:20:00.000-08:002006-11-14T12:06:43.113-08:00

Brooks Jensens writes (in his editorial in the Nov-Dec 2006 LensWork) about the impact of the coming flood of fine art photographs caused by digital photography allowing more people to engage in photography, and allow all photographers to produce dramatically larger numbers of images. It's a good editorial, well worth a read. (If you don't subscribe, well, why don't you?)Jensen seems to see the

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163363995833543362006-11-12T12:19:00.000-08:002006-11-13T11:26:38.100-08:00

Way, way back in 1996, I was thrilled to get work into my first show. I was happy to be preparing. I was happy when the prints went up, and I was sad when the prints came down.Since then I've had work in dozens of shows. Most of them were a whirlwind of happiness alternated with panic, terminated by a firm conclusions that "I'll NEVER do that again". And then, a few months later, I'd be back at

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163198532349362022006-11-10T13:57:00.000-08:002006-11-10T14:48:03.976-08:00

Karl Zipser commented on my post at Art and Perception, writing Let me offer some criticism of your post. The entire first paragraph is unnecessary. This is a blog post. Even intelligent people expect to have instant gratification, to know what the point is right away. Why do you think you have special rights to violate the expectations for the medium?It's an interesting question, deserving of a

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163190140726098792006-11-10T11:56:00.000-08:002006-11-10T12:23:19.070-08:00

Tuesday, the valley below my home flooded. It wasn't a little flood, it was a big, whopping "things outside the 100 year flood plain are under water" flood. Pretty much the entire valley was under water; all the roads out of Carnation were closed. If you all felt uneasy on Tuesday, it was because the entire world was cut off from the civilizing influence of little Carnation, WA. Lots of people

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1163087961410200542006-11-09T07:56:00.000-08:002006-11-09T07:59:21.416-08:00

I've just put up my weekly post over at Art and Perception.Rather than crosspost it here, with the result that any comments would end up split between two places, I'll just link to it here. Go read it at The Four Seductions.

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162876284487822302006-11-06T20:53:00.000-08:002006-11-07T11:45:07.680-08:00

From The Accidental Masterpiece - On the Art of Life and Vice Versa, by Michael Kimmelman:...art provides us with clues about how to live our own lives more fully. Put differently, this is about how creating, collecting, and even just appreciating art can make living a daily masterpiece. I don't mean that every day becomes perfect if we enjoy art. But having spent much of my own life looking at

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162843602586199262006-11-06T11:27:00.000-08:002006-11-06T12:06:42.600-08:00

I can remember my first photographic visit to the Washington State coast. It was just after I'd started using a 4x5 camera, and as I drove from my home to the coast, in my mind I was seeing lots of wonderful photos of rugged coastline with clear, beautiful weather and Ansel Adams style big, photogenic clouds decorating the sky.But when I got there, I found that the weather was overcast and the

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162767400562376722006-11-05T14:24:00.000-08:002006-11-05T14:56:40.573-08:00

There's much interesting reading in Chantal Stone's post here and in the comments of her readers.Chantal writes: "This brings up an intersting topic for discussion. Does quanity equal quality? Or does quantity inspire quality? By shooting all the time, of course one will improve as a photographer...practice makes perfect afterall."It's not so much that I'm advocating the idea that quantity is the

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162679989300984332006-11-04T14:28:00.000-08:002006-11-04T15:33:23.410-08:00

The following passage from Ted Orland's The View from the Studio Door really rang my chimes as I was re-reading that book after spending time viewing some new (to me) photoblogs this morning:In another time and culture closer to our own, Johann Sebastian Bach composed new church music for each Sunday Mass - and he was just one composer among hundreds who held similar jobs. Think about that: there

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162599739426541362006-11-03T15:59:00.000-08:002006-11-03T16:22:19.440-08:00

I've just spent half a day browsing photo blogs.One problem I have with many photo blogs is that they're a stream of images, but there seems to be little connection from one image to the next. One day, it's a flower. The next day, it's a gritty image of an urban hotel doorway. After that, it's an image of someone walking a dog. (No, that's not a real photo blog, that's an example). The photo blog

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162495481919369212006-11-02T10:21:00.000-08:002006-11-02T11:24:41.926-08:00

In 1997, when it was time for my New Year's resolutions, I decided to set some photographic goals. My big goal was to produce one finished print, mounted and matted, each week. At the end of the year, I'd have 52 mounted, matted prints ready to go into frames. It turns out that was an ambitious goal. I didn't achieve it, but I did make a lot more photographs than I had the previous year.My

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162415058841375022006-11-01T12:57:00.000-08:002006-11-01T16:20:37.783-08:00

Two tidbits of news:New sdg photos on my main website, here. These are six more from the same morning as the last set.I've been asked to be a contributor at Art and Perception. Naturally, I accepted immediately. I'll be making posts on Thursdays, starting tomorrow. It's an excellent blog, with many interesting posts from many interesting artists. Don't miss the comment threads, which contain

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162405982839417342006-11-01T09:54:00.000-08:002006-11-01T10:34:53.533-08:00

When a person stands in the landscape and looks around, their visual experience is three-dimensional. They 'see' things with depth; they experience some objects as proximate and some as remote. This happens even though we can't really 'see' depth; we see lots of little cues (including stereo vision information) and our brain helpfully creates a 3-d model, and part of our visual experience is this

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162319477882112122006-10-31T09:59:00.000-08:002006-10-31T10:31:17.890-08:00

The above photo is of my 'work wall', a space where I tack up 14x17 prints of the most recent photos I've made (at least the ones that have made the 'first cut' in the editing process). There's a reason why I cling to making prints and looking at them on the wall, as opposed to just editing on the 30" monitor I use.I've spent quite a bit of time looking at the archives of photobloggers, and for

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162317466800469252006-10-31T09:50:00.000-08:002006-10-31T09:58:48.280-08:00

Gordon McGregor had problems posting comments because he's a blogger beta participant, and emailed me these excellent observations:I've had a similar, though different problem. I've mostly shot digital and pretty much exclusively for online viewing. I print a bit (but constrained mostly by the letter size of my inkjet). I have a fascination for but a complete lack of ability to compose for large

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162249569247500412006-10-30T14:44:00.000-08:002006-10-30T17:11:55.233-08:00

Ah, yes. Out this morning with the camera, in a valley filled with fog. It was cold, really cold - down near freezing. The fog was the heavy, wet kind - not the light dry morning ground fog but the sort that tastes and smells damp, that wets your fleece jacket and numbs your fingers into stiffness, and turns the sharp pop of the duck hunters' shotguns into a softer, thicker thump.On the drive

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162180256636920202006-10-29T19:42:00.000-08:002006-10-29T19:50:56.643-08:00

I'm a fan of photoblogs. I don't have quite the discipline it takes to keep up my own, or at least not in the long run. But I'm impressed by anyone who does, especially if the quality of their work is consistently high.Diane Varner's is my new favorite. Check out this image. Then just scroll back.She's just got such a nice style. It's not that I like every photo she posts. But lately, it's

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1162149035354780462006-10-29T10:35:00.000-08:002006-10-29T11:10:35.873-08:00

Most photographers would agree that the sort of camera you use has a strong influence on what photographic opportunities you 'see' and thus a direct effect on what things you photograph.One thing that haven't seen discussed is the effect that the print size has on what photographs we make. In part, I suspect this is a result of that fact that, until inkjet printing came along, the equipment and

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161921321750743652006-10-26T20:00:00.000-07:002006-10-27T09:27:46.313-07:00

In the comments on this thread, I said that as a photographer, I was concerned with process and unconcerned with the resulting artifacts. Arthur responded, sayingAs for process and artifact, I'm not sure that you are doing enough tode-emphasize the latter. Why do you archive work on your blog? Isn't the process of photography generally aimed at creating an artifact worth perserving? First, I'd

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161818811963264502006-10-25T16:09:00.000-07:002006-10-25T23:02:29.026-07:00

Once, I had the great fortune to hear Jean Pierre Rampal play at Mitchell Hall on the University of Delaware campus. It was a hot, humid summer evening, and because the building wasn't air conditioned, all the windows in the recital hall were open, even the ones way up near the very high ceiling. Rampal played beautifully, as you would expect.Now, the U of D campus was home to quite a few birds;

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161808494418369752006-10-25T13:11:00.000-07:002006-10-25T13:36:45.276-07:00

Colin's post got me thinking about this whole score and performance metaphor, and I decided "What the heck. Let's just wade in a give it a try."The original image, as captured by my camera: Next, the version I made not long after making the exposure, some time back:Foreground emphasized, sky slightly de-emphasized, overall tonality adjusted. I was aiming for a stronger feeling of depth to the

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161801894460458572006-10-25T10:54:00.000-07:002006-10-25T11:44:55.626-07:00

There's an interesting post (and even more interesting comments) over at Art and Perception. Lately I've been looking at landscape paintings, searching for clues to my puzzlement over what direction I want my landscape photography to take. (actually, truth be told, I've been checking a lot of books out of the library and looking at a lot of reproductions of paintings on the web).But the comments

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161625978370210532006-10-23T10:30:00.000-07:002006-10-23T10:52:58.380-07:00

That's the mundane question that plagues us. Sitting right next to my Epson 9600, I've got half a dozen rolls of paper in various widths and paper types. And the question is, how much paper is left on each roll? Knowing the answer can prevent nasty suprises at the end of a big print.People who are good on record keeping probably keep track of what they print off each roll, and use this running

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161577163379733512006-10-22T21:01:00.000-07:002006-10-22T21:19:23.386-07:00

The other day, when I was happily engaged in taking a bunch of closeups using my spiffy new RRS CB-18 as a tripod arm, I was trying (unsuccessfully, it turns out) to turn a random clutter of vine maple branches into a compelling photograph, and the phrase 'stick pictures' popped into my mind.It took me a while to figure out where the phrase came from, but I finally twigged to it this morning (pun

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161533702170911012006-10-22T09:03:00.000-07:002006-10-22T09:19:55.000-07:00

HP recently announced the HP DesignJet 2100/3100 inkjet printers. These printers have a built in photospectrometer; the idea is that you can stick an arbitrary paper into the printer, and the printer will automatically print the test pattern, read the printed pattern, and then produce an ICC profile for the paper in that printer.I'm amazed that this feature hasn't gotten more attention. If it

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161486829857992012006-10-21T20:08:00.000-07:002006-10-21T20:13:49.863-07:00

The gallery sdg on my main website is where I've been putting the first edit of my current main project. Today I put some new photos up.Some of them were from exposures made this morning. Wow, it felt good to get out with the camera. Really good.

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161380433674423862006-10-20T14:40:00.000-07:002006-11-24T12:40:52.066-08:00

One of the reasons I like photography is because it provides 'flow opportunities' - a chance to engage in an activity where I lose track of time, where I am completely engaged in the task and the world around me.The term 'flow' comes from the book Flow - the psychology of optimal experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I read the book when it first came out, back in 1990, and I found it

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161376251924204452006-10-20T13:28:00.000-07:002006-10-20T14:39:09.923-07:00

There's nothing like a new toy to make you want to go out and photograph. My latest new toy just arrived, about four hours before I expected it (the UPS delivery is usually around 4:30 or 5:00, today the van arrived at 12).Not long ago, I borrowed a Gitzo carbon fiber Explorer tripod - the one with the cunning 'center' column that can be swiveled around and up and down - the center column is

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161283735353591712006-10-19T11:18:00.000-07:002006-10-19T11:48:55.576-07:00

I hate artist's statements. I hate having to write them for my own work when I hang a show, and I almost always hate reading them when I look at someone else's show.I hate writing them because writing a decent artist statement is hard. One reason it's hard is that you're often trying to articulate the thoughts behind the work, and that task always brings to mind the Lewis Hine quote "If I could

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161220726834973612006-10-18T17:48:00.000-07:002006-10-18T18:18:46.853-07:00

Colin makes some interesting points in the comments to this thread about using a view camera tilt to get the near foreground and the distant horizon in focus for 'walk in' landscapes.It's interesting in that Colin, who's been using smaller format cameras (and sometimes tilt capable lenses) is moving away from them at toward a 4x5 view camera at the same time I'm busily making exactly the same

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161124040172283272006-10-17T15:15:00.000-07:002006-10-17T15:27:20.183-07:00

Lest anyone conclude that all I do is cerebrate about art, and never worry about the pragmatic issues involved in actually making it, I observe that in the Northern Hemisphere, the weather is now turning wet and icky.My solution: Muck boots. Really, Muck Boots is the brandname; you can check out their web site at http://www.muckboots.com/index.htm.I have a pair of 'Tack Classic' muck boots.

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161116369205086882006-10-17T12:50:00.000-07:002006-10-17T13:19:29.246-07:00

In one of those synchronistic events I love so much, I picked up De Kooning's Bicycle: Artists and Writers in the Hamptons from the pile of 'books to be read', and started reading it whilst eating lunch today. It's the story of all the famous artists like Jackson Pollock and de Kooning who moved to the East End of Long Island and made it such a center for artists.And the book seems fine, and

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161095360677382582006-10-17T07:26:00.000-07:002006-10-17T07:29:20.686-07:00

It never rains but it pours.This thread at Luminous Landscape has some interesting thoughts along the lines of my musings on working close to home and making landscape photographs that are not 'idealized' moments.

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161035209554148812006-10-16T14:28:00.000-07:002006-10-16T14:47:50.706-07:00

I've argued against art being a spectator sport. "No more second-hand art," I've said.This past weekend, I got a demo of first hand art, at Miller's Community and Arts Center. Saturday evening was the opening for the most recent show there, featuring work by Joe Lee Davidson, Paula Strobel, Mike Ball, and Matthew Waddington.Lee Grumman wrote in the invite "You don’t have to be a hoity, toity art

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1161033977811035412006-10-16T13:42:00.000-07:002006-10-16T14:26:18.176-07:00

It's easier to go to exotic places and make beautiful photos of really impressive mountains than it is to make a beautiful photo of a really boring pepper. - anon.Colin Jago's photostream has become my must visit blog as I struggle to come to grips with several intertwined thoughts. In this post Colin hits the nail on the head when he writes "Seeing, it would seem, needs not just time. It

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160850868086497202006-10-14T11:10:00.000-07:002006-10-14T11:34:28.096-07:00

Back before I bought the EOS-5d, when I was doing essentially all of my landscape photography in large format, I had managed to engineer an escape from equipment lust. 1997, I was feeling the pinch of the Wisner I was using, and I sat down and made a list of what my dream 4x5 kit would look like - camera, lenses, tripod, pack, accessories. And then I went out, and in one horrific binge, bought it

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160840838940458552006-10-14T08:29:00.000-07:002006-10-14T08:47:18.946-07:00

We've hit the big time fog season here in Carnation, WA. In the evening, the fog gathers as the sun sets and the air cools, and by morning the entire valley is filled with fog trapped between the hills to the west and the hills to the east. The morning breeze pushes the fog up the valley and the rising sun burns it off, and then the cycle repeats.The fog is one of the things that makes the

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160778364197946202006-10-13T15:15:00.000-07:002006-10-13T15:26:04.203-07:00

Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, Youth In Focus, a non-profit organization that works with urban teens using photography as a tool to make positive changes in their lives, was burglarized. Stolen was their digital camera equipment used for the digital portion of their instruction. The cost of the stolen equipment is over $7000.00 and their insurance will only cover a portion of this

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160689932973494912006-10-13T07:20:00.000-07:002006-10-13T07:27:27.826-07:00

And it's all such a delicate balancethat this sport of infinity gives;expectations we havecan lead down the pathwhere that devil discouragement lives- the late Tom Dundee, in "Delicate Balance"Like a lot of photographers, I tend to photograph in 'projects'; because I'm primarily a landscape photographer, the projects are often (but not always) geographically based. For instance, I have an ongoing

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160698036121243152006-10-12T17:01:00.000-07:002006-10-12T17:07:16.130-07:00

For some time now, I've been struggling to sort out some thoughts about landscape photography and the way it seeks to capture the landscape at extraordinary moments instead of quotidian ones.Today I visited photostream, one of the blogs on Auspicious Dragon, and discovered that I'm not alone in trying to sort out those thoughts and issues.I was especially struck by the words I'm not arguing that

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160678086477772902006-10-12T10:51:00.000-07:002006-10-12T11:34:46.570-07:00

Every once in a while, I'll read something which seems to make a bunch of random thoughts I've been having for quite a while crystallize into a more coherent form. Last week I got such a comment in email from Ed Richards, who wroteI would also think about whether the ritual of LF is necessary, whether the instant gratification but ultimately limited capabilities of digital are helping undermine

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160605101506808722006-10-11T15:08:00.000-07:002006-10-11T15:18:21.513-07:00

This morning, I spent a little time reviewing the editing I've done for my sdg project, and because I was feeling a bit depressed about the whole thing, I decided to take a break and make my lunch a bit early. At the exact moment I plopped the bread and cheese for a grilled cheese sandwich into the pan to cook, the phone rang.The caller was my wife, calling to tell me that she'd arrived at the

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160580123108887212006-10-11T08:07:00.000-07:002006-10-11T08:22:03.133-07:00

"Life is short, the Art is long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgment difficult. Fortunately, film is cheap." -Paul Butzi, after HippocratesSeveral years ago, when I was teaching a workshop on the WA coast in a spot which is arguably one of the most fertile spots for photography on the planet, I had a student in the group who just wandered around, not taking photographs of

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160493627151800282006-10-10T08:13:00.000-07:002006-10-10T08:20:27.160-07:00

The same art show gave me another insight - this one about titles. I've always hated giving my photographs titles. If you don't title your prints, it seems as if you just don't find them important enough to be bothered. And, I'll admit, part of my hatred of titles is nothing but laziness.But John Greene made a really good point when he talked about why he doesn't title his paintings. He said "I

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160439434634064452006-10-09T17:08:00.000-07:002006-10-09T17:19:57.220-07:00

"He was gifted with the special capability of making many mistakes, mostly in the right direction. I envied him for this and tried in vain to emulate him, but found it quite difficult to make good mistakes."- Goro Shimura, speaking of Yutaka TaniyamaI read the above some years ago, in a book about the proving of Fermat's Theorem. At the time, it seemed mostly to be a statement about how some

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160077604987444332006-10-05T12:36:00.000-07:002006-10-05T12:53:18.386-07:00

As I watched this video on the Gilde 66-17 MST Super 3d camera, I ran through an interesting sequence of impressions.The first impression is that this is a pretty amazing camera - it shoots every format from 6x6 thru 6x17, offers tilts, shifts, a ground glass, a rather amazing 120 roll film holder that sings, dances, and mixes dry martinis.The second impression was that, at least in this 'niche

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1160068076677889112006-10-05T09:50:00.000-07:002006-10-05T10:11:14.263-07:00

One of my problems is that my photographic projects don't obey Newton's First Law (Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless an outside force acts upon them). Specifically, a project in motion will come to a complete stop unless I dedicate considerable attention and energy to keeping it moving. For me, all projects are in constant peril - if once my

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1159992106633271602006-10-04T12:54:00.000-07:002006-10-04T13:09:58.076-07:00

One of the things that constantly fascinates me about photographic equipment is how our photographs are a blend of the photographer's vision and the equipment used. The impact of equipment isn't absolute; you could make macrophotographs of flowers using a Leica M series rangefinder, for instance. But it would be harder, and you'd probably make slower progress. Even if you did it, there's a sort

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1159916359691501012006-10-03T15:43:00.000-07:002006-10-04T09:20:45.486-07:00

Not long ago, I checked Jim Brandenburg's book "Chased by the Light" out from the library. For those who don't know this book, it's the story of Brandenburg's breathtaking project in which he made exactly one photograph per day for 3 months. Not just one photograph - he made exactly one exposure per day. I've long been fascinated by this project, which for me represents a sort of pinnacle of

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35356945.post-1159908399023736162006-10-03T13:40:00.000-07:002006-10-03T13:46:39.026-07:00

One of the comments I've been getting from several different reviewers of my ongoing photography of the Snoqualmie valley is "This photo doesn't belong in this series; it looks like it could be from anywhere, as opposed to just in the Snoqualmie valley."I'm just not sure what to do with that comment. On the one hand, I can see what they're getting at. On the other hand, just because the work is

Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com0