Previous Editiorials

Thanks to all the benefits of modern civilization, the average person will live about 70 years or 2,209,032,000 seconds. About 2/3s of these are committed to sleeping, eating, and bread-winning. We have found various uses for the remaining 736,344,000 seconds, of which channel surfing remains by far the most popular. But, if you should ever burn out on re-runs, sitcoms, and reality shows, consider doing art. Lack talent? Not a problem: take up photography - no drawing or painting skills required. Lack imagination? Not a problem: let Mother Nature be your guide.

06-2007

The more I make pictures the clearer I get about what's going on. I was just sitting on my deck - almost overcast evening sky, green plague trees receding into the distance. A small dark bird came darting into the scene, drilling a hole into the sky, then disappearing over the horizon. I'm part bird myself; my heart went out to the little guy, busy on some mission that consumed his soul. Love is the bridge that binds us to the higher plane we yearn for.

For, as a lens is to a camera, so a photographer is to the world. The artist participates in - not witnesses - the creation of the scene she or he renders. Where there is love to bridge the gap between artist and subject, there is always the possibility of the resulting image arcing that second gap between artist and viewer. The viewer knows love, the artist knows love, the only question is: can the artist trigger the love response in the viewer for the subject of the image? All our efforts and artifices are directed toward this end.

06-L0880

I recently saw the following quote in an art store:

    "Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt.
      Poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen."

      - L. Da Vinci

This sums up most everything I know about art. If I had come across this quote a few years ago I would have agreed with it then too. But there are levels of agreement. It is easy to agree with Sherman that "war is hell", but I assume these words take on a whole new level of meaning for someone who has actually been on the receiving end of a bombardment. Similarly, after you've painted your first 100 pictures or made your first 1000 photographs, you will see that some thrive while others wilt on the vine. If you look for the common element in the ones that thrive you begin to latch on to the essence of the above quote as if seeing a vague shape looming in a fog that gradually clarifies as you move closer to it.

Surely art could be taught with a graduated series of koans like the above. "OK: you understand what Picasso meant when he said that 'to paint from nature is to draw toenails'. Good: next work on what Robert Capa meant when he said 'if your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough.'"

06-L5512

A millionaire left his painting collection to be divided between his five nephews and neices. The collection consisted of a Monet, a Constable, a Van Gogh, a Picasso, and a Dimmerbriewski. First choice went to the eldest nephew, an avid amateur photographer.

The photographer locked himself into a room with all five paintings, then carefully counted the brush strokes per square inch in each one. Re-appearing after more than an hour, he smugly announced that he had decided upon the painting that had by far the highest resolution - and no amount of arguing, begging, pleading, or cajoling could possibly move him to give up his Dimmerbriewski.

06-L5570

The more I learn about photography the more amazed I become at what a vast continent of different subject matter, equipment, approaches, techniques, passions, heroes, and much more it encompasses. The continent could in fact be the storied Africa of a few hundred years ago - easy to travel no farther than across the next river to find oneself in the territory of a completely alien tribe, speaking an incomprehensible language or dialect. Universal concepts like optics and exposure allow just enough communication between tribes to generate endless misunderstandings, which in turn generate the copious amounts of heat that give it the reputation for being such a sweltering place to live.

On the continent of Photography it takes a very few days to cross through the territory of tribes like the MacroInsectophiles to the neighbouring AvianTelephotophiles ending up at the ViewCamera Foothills, inhabited by the gently nomadic B'n'UUs. Crossing that chain, then fording the treacherous DigitalVersusFilm Rapids, might bring us to the wild hordes of Canon-worshipping, white-lensed ProPhotoJournalistici and ProSportsPhotographici, perennially waging a war of extermination against the black-barrelled Nikon Heresiacs. A treacherous journey this, with either clan spelling almost certain death to a lone traveler armed only with a single lens, manual-action Hexar.

06-2438

Jan 07: I watched a bio of Louis Armstrong over the holidays. Louis did little more than teach the world how to make music. Before Louis music was a just-so-story, made in Europe by dead people. Exquisitely crafted, beautifully rendered ... with about as much vitality as a bed pan.

Photography seems to be in need of another Louis. Is there something in the Euro-Caucasian genome that prescribes this propensity for emulating zombies? I'm late to the party, but it seems to me that photography was beginning to jive a bit in the 1930s and '40s with the likes of Friedlander and Winogrand. Now, with the digital camera revolution married to the Internet revolution, there is a massive upswell of amateurs who can't seem to get past the four-square prissiness of static content, squeaky-clean detail, saturated but not garish colour, and studio-perfect lighting.

Is there no one left in photography who can understand why Louis had gravel in his voice, sang syllables that couldn't be found in any dictionary, and riffed cascades of notes that perpetually played tag with the down beat? What does the visual equivalent of that look like?

What I'm talking about is different from art school experimentalism and university conceptualism. Europe recognized its own musical malaise at the same time Louis was waifing it in the streets of New Orleans. But the prescription Europe came up with was to push its head-tripping to new extremes: the dodecaphonic arythmia of Berg and Schoenberg. Art and intellect make uneasy bed-fellows; the offspring are most often alienation, neurosis, and despair. Jive shows us the way – not less in touch with the life force, but more.

Jan 07 (take 2): FLASH! We interrupt the previous editorial to bring you this New Years Eve special:

As a rule, I don't stay up late on New Year's Eve. Last year, the idea would have been to usher in 2006. For some reason odd-numbered years sound more important than even-numbered years to me, so I wasn't expecting much good to come out of 2006. But, artistically at least, it looks to have been my most productive year yet.

I have three 13x19" Itoya portfolios that hold 48 prints each. Each is filled to the brim. One goes from 2001 to 2004 and contains all my 35mm film-based pictures. So I gleaned roughly 12 keepers for each of those four years. Then I have a second portfolio that has about a dozen pictures from the year 2000, with the rest being filled with 2005. So 2005 was a good year for me. But for 2006 I have all 48 slots of the third portfolio filled and could use room for a several more. Best year yet (although over the coming years I'll probably reject a few of the 2006 pictures I currently consider to be keepers).

Some artists may dream of fame and fortune, of finding that rich buyer or famous gallery owner. When I was eighteen, a pianist friend used to play Chopin for me on his baby grand (Billy Borover – where are you now?). He once told me that Chopin's mistress used to literally faint with rapture when Frederic debuted his latest composition for her. That's what motivates me – the hope of one day finding that one other human being who cannot look at any of my portfolio prints without fainting from an overdose of too much beauty!

Best wishes for 2007; and may you find the same if you're an artist, or the equivalent if you're not!

The world will tell its own story if you don't get in the way.

14 Feb 2007: In a Daystar Visions exclusive, I'm sure David Pogue and like thinkers will be delighted with vindication from an unexpected source:

Breaking news! Ansel Adams, the iconic American landscape photographer long believed dead, is in fact still alive and residing incognito in a safe house near Boswell, New Mexico along with Elvis Aron Presley and a mysterious figure some believe to be Jimmy Hoffa, although this has not been confirmed. We coaxed Mr. Adams out of hiding last week to get his views on digital photography in general and the recent megapixel controversy in particular:

"Yes, it's true. I have been actively involved in photography through the digital revolution. I started with a 2.6 megapixel Nikon D1. Then I upgraded to a Nikon D2X when that model was released – but did not find the extra megapixels to be that important. I now shoot a special edition, titanium body, 4 megapixel Olympus C-4040, rigged with a custom-made accordion lens shade and a carbon fiber Velbon tripod, specially manufactured to my own specifications. I find this lightweight combination gives me exceptional image quality in prints up to 20x30 inches; and, in any case, everyone I show my work to seems to be able to tell the difference between Half Dome and the Grand Canyon, which of course is all that really matters.

"Having experimented with many tools, my digital 'darkroom' now consists of the very spartan combination of QImage and an Epson 9600 printer. Of course, I experimented with Photoshop and similar software in the beginning. But if there's one lesson I've learned over the years, it's that a good photographer gets the image right in the camera. Fussing about in post-processing is strictly for losers. [Chuckles] I remember how I used to spend hours dodging and burning every print under a dim red bulb in my darkroom – how embarrassing to look back on the follies of one's youth!"

Mar 07 (unpublished) The picture above is innocuous. It shows a tree in a suburban front yard, wet on the southeast side from early April rain, still dry on the northwest. If I had taken this pic in the overcast light before the rains started, not just half the tree trunk but the whole rest of the frame would have been correspondingly dull and contrast-less. If I had taken this pic the next day or the day after that - given the rainy forecast - most likely the entire trunk of the tree would have been wet.

I happen to be an unabashed and unrepentant colourist. Worse - I don't do documentary photography. No better introduction to this site than to declare that I have absolutely no compunction in post-processing about pushing any pic, no matter how dry the conditions in which I exposed the frame, to find its point of maximum in-your-face vividness, both in colour and in emotion.

The odd couple

Mar 07 - Inkjet printing tip: Ever have a flake come off the coating of a print leaving an unsightly white spot behind? You may have tried retouching with ballpoint, crayon, pencil, etc. and found that nothing works because nothing matches the particular sheen of the surrounding ink.

Instead open the image file for that print; crop a small portion from the image that includes where the flake is; print that on clear film, such as overhead transparency acetate, or simply print to the wrong side of a scrap piece of photo paper (the ink doesn't dry on the back). Now use a toothpick to scrape off a daub of wet ink the same colour as what the flake should be and carefully apply it to the print. Allow to dry for a few seconds. I read this years ago on a printing forum: I wish I could attribute this to the originator but can no longer remember the name.

10 May 07: If there's anyone who follows this site, you know that I shot tripod landscapes with 35mm print film up until two years ago then switched to digital, handheld, and animate subject matter. Two years later, having worked my way through the infatuation stage with handheld, I've been toying with doing a certain amount of tripod landscapes again this year. Prior experience at landscapes with my 6 mp dSLR and 8 mp LX1 has been something less than an unqualified success.

10 mp is the new default, so today I took a tripod to the camera shop and shot with my LX1, my 6 mp Pentax DS, and the store's Pentax K10D. I used the store's high quality Pentax zoom (16-45) for the K10D instead of the 18-55 kit lens I have for the DS. I took pictures outside of parking lot and bare-branch trees on the horizon. It's the distant bare trees that tell the resolution story for me; to my mind there are few greater resolution challenges in photography. Returning home with a card full of raw files, I fired up Lightroom and got to work. Yes: I could see improvement - maybe 20% over the LX1 and DS. If I had used a prime lens on the K10D the resolution improvement might well have hit the 30% mark.

Problem is: when I compare the result to 35mm Reala scans at 4000 ppi, the Reala wins hands down. It would be really tough to say whether the Reala has any more than 10 mp res - the grain is so prominent it's hard to make a call - but what Reala does have is integrity - some quality that makes a highly detailed picture just work. And there's also the issue my good friend Craig Norris' brought to my attention about hue gradations - I suspect especially in the reddish hues - that film still beats dSLRs at. I hate shooting film and loathe scanning; but when it comes to landscapes it's either back to 35mm or pay $20,000 for an MF-DB.

Anyone know a cure for roll film curl?

Twin Lakes November #1 by Linda Shedlock

16 May '07: Here's a buzzword from the corporate world: repurposing. The banner on this page used to read Existing-light art photography. As you can see I've inserted a rather strategic ampersand. I do this in conjunction with bringing you new content on the Pictures page: a portfolio of paintings instead of photographs.

This site averages about 300 visits per day, virtually all of them, I'm sure, photographers, and maybe half of those could well have no interest in art whatsoever (Hey - how does this DOF stuff work, again?). Those of you who do put art and photography in the same package may well do so because you have no interest whatsoever in all that weird stuff painters do to perfectly good pieces of paper or canvas.

If so, I think you'll be missing out on something special. Anyone who gets deeply involved doing art (including art photography) may have started out with the idea that it's to be just a hobby, a pastime, then gradually gotten hooked. You realize that has happened when you find yourself searching for your own "voice", your unique contribution to the visual microcosm. Ironically, in this case the more you press, the worse the results. The intellect is not the best tool by which to achieve this goal; almost by definition finding your artistic identity is something that has to grow as an organic extension of your total being.

The first thing that struck me about the art of Linda Shedlock is that she has found her own voice. The other thing that's immediately obvious is that the voice she's found is a lyrical one.

07-L5933

01 Jun '07: It was forty years ago today that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play. Amazing how time flies when you're having fun.>

08 Jul '07: The eighth and final episode of my Art Appreciation course is now on-line. This series is aimed at anyone with that nagging sense of insecurity or inadequacy when confronted with anything framed and hung on a wall. Find a complete listing on the Art tab to the left.

18 Jul '07: Apologies for not having kept the Now What? portfolio up to date. I just added everything since mid March. These are mostly photos of opportunity rather than the results of a planned photography outing.

14 Jul '07: He's so far defied my efforts to get a grab-shot, but a certain chipmunk (Chip to my Dale) has been feasting on the bird seed droppings from my bird feeder of late. He crams in as much as he can hold, then dashes with cheek pouches full to unload at his larder, then dashes back for more. I mention this because I'd like to get the shot of Chip with full cheek pouches to illustrate a concept. Namely, that the real reason we humans do this weird thing we call visual art is to hoard visual beauty when it's plentiful in order to have it around to enjoy when it's scarce. – Just another symptom of our hyper-enlarged visual cortex that we homo saps could value something as inedible as visual data to such a degree. Amazing isn't it? What will Mother Nature come up with next? A species that chooses a mate based on visual attributes or purchases food based on the attractiveness of its packaging or acquires vehicles based on their styling? ... Nah. No organism could be that contra-survival...

Thought for the Day [Fall '07]: It's been 102 years since the publication of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, yet we're still seeing Good = I like it; Bad = I don't pervading every highway and twisty little by-way of human expression. Absolutism kills more people each year than HIV, Global Warming, Cancer, and Speed put together. The original idea for Homo Sapiens was: a species capable of abstract thought. So come on, people: let's get with the program!

28 Nov '07: Today the team here at Daystar Visions proudly brings you this major new and exclusive offering, only available from this site! Stay tuned for details and our 1 April '08 product launch:

PRE-ANNOUNCING
Daystar Visions Photography-by-Number Kits

A complete kit to produce your own guaranteed master-level photographs, using your own camera and computer.

From Start to Finish
Each kit provides exact step-by-step instructions from start to finish for a gorgeous full-colour photo of one of North America's great visual landmarks, including Half Dome at Yosemite, Niagara Falls, Mt Rainier, Banff National Park etc.

The Magic of GPS
You will be guided with exact instructions from the nearest airport, including GPS readings, that will put you in the precise spot to set up your tripod. You will be told exactly what lens, f/stop, and focal length to use, what direction to point your camera, etc., so no part of the image capture process will be left to chance.

Custom Printing
When you return home you will follow exact step-by-step post-processing instructions using one of several supported image editing applications to create a master-level image file, which you will then e-mail to our exclusive pro-level printing service and receive back a complete set of archival-grade A4, A3, and A2 prints.

Money-back Guarantee
Your prints will look just like ones you've seen in National Geographic, commercial wall calendars, travel brochures, etc. or your money back!

Op/ed for Nov '07: You'll often read on forums that obsession with equipment in photography would be like painters getting together and arguing over which brand of paintbrush is superior. This sounds very deep but fails the test of history. The reason painters don't have equipment debates is because their technology came to maturity centuries ago. If we were to listen in on two rival painters arguing back in the Renaissance, however, the story would be very different.

I watched a documentary on paint technology not too long ago; painters did not always have the palette of pigments available that we take for granted now. A painter that had access to something like pure ultramarine blue or vermilion when these pigments were just being perfected would have had a dramatic technical edge over the competition. The secrets of pigment and paint preparation were closely guarded and passed down from master to apprentice.

The trick is to have gear that meets your goals or goals that match your gear. Choose one.

Rule A: make your picture worthy of the Louvre.
Rule B: there are no other rules.>

Big Brother is watching you...

A (Modern) Modest Proposal: Summer is winding down up here in the northern hemisphere and the good weather ball is bouncing back into the southern court. Frankly, there ought to be some way to eliminate the southern hemisphere all together and redirect enough of that sunshine up here where the majority of people actually live (or at least the ones that matter ;), so this winter nonsense can be done away with once and for all.

Or perhaps the southern continents can be mirror-coated and an array of satellite mirrors used to reflect the sunlight onto the northern hemisphere. Done properly, this would also solve the global warming problem, simply by leaving the net sunlight retention of the planet at a lower level than it is at present. Mirror-coating a continent may sound extravagant; but if all the aluminum used to make pop and beer cans were recycled, melted, then misted over the land, that should do the job nicely.>

Thought for the day: Here in my old age it becomes increasingly clear to me that all the world's a mix of fools and knaves. Yet to try to rise above the universal mire is simply to fall into the folly of taking oneself seriously.

Thought for the next day: A fascinating symmetry of the special theory of relativity is seldom commented on in popularizations but is the sort of thing that makes physicists wax lyrical.

If you are observing on earth as I fly by in a space ship at a significant fraction of the speed of light, you observe the length of my ship and the duration of my transit and report it to me. Both measurements will be noticeably less than the ones I make of my own ship and my own transit time. But strangely the converse is true as well. If I observe the length of your observatory and how fast your assistant's Ferrari is traveling as he drives up the mountain on his way to work, and report these numbers to you, you will say they are both too short.

It is said that people seldom suffer fools gladly. But in my experience the converse is equally true: fools seldom suffer wise men gladly. Fools believe their folly to be wisdom and the wise man's wisdom to be folly. This leaves us in the wonderful position of always being able to convince ourselves that we ourselves are the bearers of wisdom and that those who do not agree are fools. Never fail to take comfort from this observation – it may be the only comfort the universe will ever toss your way... ;)

29 July '08: Here's one problem you don't have to worry about when you visit this site: Legitimate websites face new threats (Globe & Mail). With barely 400 page views per day Daystar Visions is not a prime target for hackers. If you visit this site regularly, pat yourself on the back: you're a member of a very exclusive club. ;)

The first requirement of art is that it pierce the heart like a stiletto. Too many photographers mistake a sharp tool for accurate aim; others believe irony, intellect, or alienation will suffice for their targets. But the measure is as simple as it is ruthless: no one may escape great art unscathed.

Carol, Pippin, Jody

30 June '08: When I look at the picture above I can't help but be reminded of a certain portrait by Julia Margaret Cameron titled "She said I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead".

And on a slightly less morbid (if no less eclectic) note here are some Pentax K20D tips & tricks for RAW shooters.

16 June '08: Talk about being stuck in a rut. A recent occurrence reminded me that the first time I put up a product review on a website was of a Toshiba laptop back in 1987. Plus c'est la meme chose, plus ça change. (Thanks to reader Bill Duncan for pointing out that the Internet didn't exist in 1987. My best guess is that the Toshiba review was "published" on CompuServe back then.)

03 June '08: As an aside, this may be as good a time as any to make an obscure point. Since the English language lacks a generic non-neuter pronoun, I formerly used she/her instead of he/him as my small contribution to women's lib. That battle has now been fairly well won, and I turn it over to the 3+ billion women in the world to carry on with the generic she/her while we men return to the generic he/him.

25 July '08: Today brings not one but two new tutorials: Eradicating Blown Highlights in Photoshop; and the companion Decimating Lens Flare in Photoshop.

22 July '08: New portfolio: North Kawarthas, Ontario, '08.

19 July '08: I just chanced across Tim Vitale's Film Grain, Resolution and Fundamental Film Particles. This is a very important document for anyone using film.

10 July '08: It is with great excitement and humility that I bring you this stupendous collation of absolute truth. Brought to you here for the very first time are nothing less than the ten commandments of photography: The Photographer's Decalogue.

10 July '08: What makes a good picture work (other than by obeying the above commandments? ;)? Let's take a look at a Centre of Interest.

13 June '08: Point&Shoot, Bridge, or dSLR? a question that gets asked 50 times a day. As always, my answer is more than a little unconventional.

03 June '08: Is it simple old age that makes me sound reactionary? See Ode to an F2 and judge for yourself.

31 May '08: Change to my use of pictures on this site. See here for details. CANCELLED DUE TO SUMMER SLOTH.

24 May '08: I've added a few more landscapes to the K20D Spring 2008 portfolio. (The new ones are numbers 5 through 11.)

24 May '08: My bank account continues to bleed. Read all the gory details here, folks: LaCie 320 LCD monitor user report.

12 May '08: You've taken the pictures, edited them, and made the prints. Now what? Here are some thoughts on the often-neglected question of Presentation.

30 Apr '08: Unless your every important shot is perfect out of the camera you may find Post-Processing tips for sub-optimal RAW images to be of interest.

23 Apr '08: A portfolio of shots using my new Pentax K20D over the past few weeks: Spring 2008.

13 Mar '08: After scrupulously scrimping for the past several years this past month sees me shelling out for two major purchases: an Epson 3800 inkjet and a Pentax K20D plus 16-45/f4 zoom. For my impressions re the Pentax see my RAW review...

17 Feb '08: A compact/point&shoot is inferior to a dSLR at the same megapixel count, right? Let's take a closer look...

16 Feb '08: With 6.6 billion people on the planet I figure there's got to be at least one who enjoys my pictures enough to want to see what I'm working on at any given time, so I've revived and updated my Now What? page.

07 Feb '08: I'm on a bit of an informal sabbatical from photography and visual art at the moment. But here's something totally off-topic to pass the time.

27 Jan '08: Here are some thoughts on Shopping for a Landscape Camera, in favour of an approach that may well surprise you.

19 Jan '08: My latest essay on fame and fortune in the visual arts: The Endless Buffet.

Many years ago I chanced upon a book called A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay. A sleeper during the artist's lifetime, this book has since gathered great critical acclaim. As raw and seemingly crude as a primitive art painting, I can't offhand think of any other novel that immerses the reader in such a tour de force of the imagination.

25 Dec '07: Merry Christmas, season's greetings, and best wishes to all from me and my family to you and yours!

9 Nov '07: New portfolio: Fall '07. Also minor tweaks and a few additions to previous portfolios.

21 Oct '07: Does it's been done before haunt your photography? If so, you may want to read my latest essay: That Long and Twisty Road.

03 Sep '07: And speaking of killing: the best way to murder your best shots is to trust your camera. Find out why in The Case of the Mistaken Multi-Meter.

02 Sep '07: What does a stone age spear point have to do with Fellini's Satyricon? To find out read today's essay: Monday's Glory and the 4th Order of Craft

Thought for the day. To have your cake and eat it too went out with the single car, single TV family. Today the absolute minimum requirement is to have your cake, eat it too, and have it slim you down in the process.

Thought for the day. As is typical of the animal kingdom, a human being is a device for converting vegetable matter into excrement.