Paul Lester Photo

I finally gave in to technology the other day and bought an iPod Touch! Not only do I like the cool technology, but it gives me something to listen to during my walks, other than traffic. So, after getting the iPod, I proceeded to load it with some music, a lot of photography podcasts, and a couple of audiobooks.

I had already had this post in mind before I listened to Brooks Jensen’s podcast entitled Kokuro. Certainly, I did not have that name in mind, though. After listening to the podcast, I almost abandoned writing this post because, essentially, he covered exactly what I had thought to cover. However, as I like to go back and read my blog entries from time to time, I decided to go with it anyway:

In looking at different forums and seeing numerous how-to books on the subject of photography, the underlying question is, or seems to be: How can I do that?! It’s technical Confucianism. If you look at Confucianism, you see that it is believed that a good life can be had by following a myriad of rules.

In my experience, the first thing that someone will ask after seeing one of my pictures that they like is: What kind of camera did you use? This, followed closely by: What shutter speed/aperture, etc did you use? Looking for the formula.

You know of my affection for Taoism. Well, I’m going a bit deeper down the rabbit hole with Zen. Right now, I’m reading: Zen: The Path to Paradox, by Osho. I won’t even try to attempt to explain Zen because it is inexplicable, like Tao. It is rather taught by the use of parables, the same as many lessons of the bible.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve heard the phrase from people who study religion:

“To enter the Kingdom of God, we must become as little children.”

I think that that kingdom is within us, not somewhere external … we’ve just forgotten how to find it. We’ve learned too much. Have you ever seen a child playing with an empty box? Have you ever wondered what they see in that box? After all, it’s just a box, right? Have you ever sat and marveled in wonder at the way things work together. Everything fits so well. There’s a food chain, weather changes things, destroys and then rebuilds, etc. When out on the woods, seeing sunlight fall upon a tree, watching an ant walk up a vertical surface going about his daily business, have you ever marveled in wonder. You don’t seek to classify the ant, nor understand his motivations.

When we constantly seek knowledge, the more knowledge that we accumulate, the more wonder we loose. We may ‘know’ that that particular species of mockingbird is Singus Aloticus Very Earlius, but we don’t know the bird. We confuse the menu (knowledge) with the meal (knowing/being) and we can never see the bird, truly. But, we see something entirely different if we sit and listen to its song, never wondering why it sings, only appreciating the beauty of the song. It is only when we dispense with our knowledge and expectation of what something is that we can begin to see other possibilities, to see beauty and endless potential, where others see only a box measuring 15x20x5.

So, I think, this is why formula does not work. Even if you have acquired all of the knowledge of everything that you seek to photograph, when you go out, you see only what you have learned … nothing else.

An interesting aside. I found a book entitled: Zen of Photography written by a guy named Paul Lester. Nope! Not me! This guy is a professor of communications somewhere. After reading the 3 reviews, it appears that he is not good at communicating. No one liked it!

I love slapstick comedy! So, it is natural that I am very much attracted to most Mel Brooks movies; my favorite is Blazing Saddles. I love the overall zaniness and political incorrectness! The other day I was watching History of the world, Part I.

In recounting the ascension of man, Mel shows the first artist. The caveman is drawing upon the wall, much to the amazement of the other cave dwellers. When he finishes, he stands back with self-satisfied look and shows the work of art to the others, who all approve … well, most of them because, as the narrator says: “After the birth of the first artist, came the birth of the first art critic”. The art critic steps apart from the crowd, sidles up to the artwork, unzips his pants, and promptly urinates on the work of art, leaving a very disappointed artist. Such is the life of an artist, I suppose.

I like viewing the work of others sometimes. I especially like to see how others portray the same subjects that I like. One such artist that I like is Diane Varner. Her subjects are interesting, but her post processing is truly artistic. If you were to take the same walk that she does, you’d never see anything like the end result, but it’s her vision and I like it. I know that some people don’t. I’ve seen it mentioned here and there.

I was browsing through some of her photos yesterday and shared them with a coworker; He didn’t like them at all. “That’s too dark”. “That’s oversharpened”. “That’s not real”. “That one’s OK”. He and I have talked about photography before. He has a camera, but never uses it and is thinking of maybe, one day, buying another one. Also, he knows nothing about Photoshop or post processing, but has an opinion about what is right and wrong with every picture that he sees. A true critic. LOL!

Anyway, as I like to learn new things, I decided to try her processing technique on one of my pictures that I chose at random. The first thing that I learned is that her type of processing is involved, requires a bit of creativity, and idea of where you’re headed. I could see spending an hour or more just tweaking to get things right. I don’t know if I’m willing/able to invest so much time, but it seems to be worth the effort.

The above picture is my attempt, which fell woefully short, but it was a nice learning exercise. I learned a couple of new things about Photoshop, so not a wasted effort.

Do I want my pictures to look like hers? No. However, I do want to keep learning techniques that will allow me to express my feelings visually.

Not bad for a 1.3 MP image! (move mouse over for original)
Although I work in the technology sector, I’m not really a techno-geek. Heck, I don’t even own an iPod, but I would like to have one of those sexy little iPod Touch guys.

I do, however, own a cell phone and find it a great convenience. I cannot text nearly as fast as my son and find it quite a chore, so if I am sent a text message, I do my best to try to figure out how to send the shortest answer possible, which still takes me a while to do. What can I say? I’m incompetent in that regard and don’t really want to gain any proficiency in that!. I have, however, been known to use my cell phone’s camera. I have a Motorola KRZR, the slimmed down version of the RZR (Razor). I’ve had the phone for about a year now and have never downloaded a picture from it. I didn’t know how. Verizon doesn’t give any instructions, but they would be happy to sell you a service that will allow you to get them to your computer … for an extra $$$ per month.

So, as I usually do when I want to figure out something, I hit Google, do a search, and the answer is provided. Don’t you love it?! My laptop has Bluetooth connectivity, my phone the same. After a short amount of consternation, I got them talking together and was able to download a few pictures and see them full sized. The original picture is quite dull, boring, and not at all sharp. Move your mouse over the image to see it. Thank goodness for Photoshop!

I see that there is going to be a gallery showing of cell phone photography. Here is a link that describes it. They would like for people to submit their images via e-mail and say that the images should come directly from the cell phone or downloaded to the computer and not manipulated. Actually, they say that you should ‘refrain’ from manipulating them. I wonder how many people will refrain?

I think that I’ll stick with my D300, but I can see that, in a pinch, my cell phone might be able to get the shot! I find it difficult to deal with a camera that I cannot focus, or for that matter, even see the darn screen in all but the faintest of light!

BTW, this shot was taken some time in May when I was visiting Utah. This is, I believe, Snow Canyon.

Any cell phone photographers out there? Do you think that you’ll submit something to this contest?