How Many Snaps Do You Store?

CNet claims that the "average" American household has 994 digital photos, holding about 3 to 4 years worth of images. I don't believe this estimate, for many reasons. Here are just a few:

- Most people weren't regularly using digital cameras 3 or 4 years ago
- People shoot more images with digital cameras than they do with film-based ones
- The majority people don't edit ruthlessly, so they're storing dozens (if not hundreds) of blurry, similar, and/or unflattering snapshots

And anyone who's recently had a new baby in the family? You could shoot that number in less than a week!

Here's to being "above average"...

Taking Better Photos at the Beach

The "Digital Photography School" blog shares tips for taking amazing photos at the beach.

Beaches present [photographers] with a number of wonderful opportunities as they are places of natural beauty, color, and interesting light. However, they also present a variety of challenges (including camera damage, privacy issues, and making large, open spaces interesting).

Read more here: digital-photography-school.com/blog/10-beach-photography-tips/

Objectivism and Art

After chatting about the works of Ayn Rand over brunch recently, I dusted off my copies of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Skimming through them, I remembered why Objectivism had such a strong resurgence during the "Greed is Good" 1980s: it championed a view of the world where it seemed possible to be good... and rich... and unapologetically narcissistic... all at the same time.

What I had forgotten was Rand's philosophy about art [e.g., "aesthetics"] as a "selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value judgments". I find this curious: although I believe strongly in a "meta-reality" (an objective reality outside the "real world" that is based on absolute "truth"), I'm not sure whether most of us can (or should) rise above our everyday lives to see things as they "really" are.

If anything, the role of the artist is not to transcend the "world of illusion", but to roll around in it like a satin sheet. I do agree with Rand's concept of the communicative value of art, but I sense (wouldn't she hate that word?) we wouldn't see eye-to-eye on what art is.

I believe strongly that art is the ***process*** itself, not the artifact (drawing, painting, photo, sculpure, etc.) that results from being "artistic". Not surprisingly, Rand seems to considers the art object as being of paramount value (as she states that it expresses in concrete form, what is essentially an abstraction.)

And does there really have to be a serious, deeper meaning and purpose to art: i.e., expressing "a more universal truth"? Art can be playful, naive, hopeful, dishonest, unoriginal, and irrelevant. And it is often "intuitive" (another Randian no-no term.)

And in the end, bearing the yoke of being a "beacon of objective truth" can get a tad heavy. After all, sometimes, a gal just want to take a silly snapshot....

Shopping for Ideas

Yesterday, I visited the IKEA store in Stoughton, Masschusetts. (Last year, I'd visited the one in Elizabeth, New Jersey and was curious to see how regionally divergent the inventory was.)

I'm still befuddled by the faux knotty wood kitchen cabinets offered in the Massachusetts store (which seemed incongrous with the chain's trademark sleek pseudo-Scandinavian design.)

But for budget style, the place can't be beat (except maybe by the equally ubiquitous Target.) The color selections were interesting (e.g., matching a deep teal with chocolate brown; and orange with avacado), although the manufacturing quality was all over the place.

But don't be surprised if you see some of the photos I shoot over the next few months adopting the palettes I saw there.

New Photos from Andres Institute

The Andres Institute of Art --a 140-acre sculpture park located in Brookline, NH --is home to a collection of more than 50 works by mostly international artists.

Its grounds include woods, meadows, old quarry pits, and miles of walking trails. Hand-painted signs lead the way to sculptures which are scattered among the trails. Even better, visitors are encouraged to touch the sculptures.

I was fortunate to visit the Institute for the first time yesterday. Selected photos from the day trip can be found here (www.flickr.com/photos/lgfindlay/sets/72157600280402206/)
and below:







You can learn more about the Institute at www.andresinstitute.org/about_institute.htm.

More Advice from the Trenches

For those of you who are Jonesing for a decent "how-to" article, here's a well-written guide on How to Photograph Silhouettes in 8 Easy Steps".

(However, please don't misuse The Force to shoot silhouettes of couples walking on a tropical beach at sunset.... and then try to enter them into a photography contest....)

Advice from the Trenches

Photocritic shares his recent jurying experience in "How to Win a Photography Contest." Someone looking for "the secret combination" on which photo to submit in a particular competition may be disppointed, because the advice is pretty basic to every picture you'll ever take: create interesting compositions, be technically proficient, work at developing your own vision, tell a story, etc.

However, the blog entry includes several noteworthy photos; my favorite was the black-and-white image of the lovers. (Do enlarge it, as the author suggests... just not at the office.)

And I agreed with Haje Kamp when he wrote:

"A snapper that is technically perfect but lacks vision will never be a great photographer. You can imitate, but not learn true photographic vision. On the other hand, having a great vision of what makes a good photo is not an excuse not to acquire the technical skills you need to express your ideas."

You'll see that I added a link to the Photocritic web site to the right-hand nav. bar of this site, as I recommend it highly.

Slow Afternoon at the Office

meez.com allows users to creat avatars that can be used for 3-D online IDs. Depending on which options you choose, it can be absolutely free!

Here I am:

Photography Meetup Groups

I recently joined a few photo-related Meetup groups. Meetup.com is a web site that connects and introduces people who are interested in the same topic. Users can sign up for any of a number of local and area groups devoted to their areas of interest. The photo groups to which I belong are great about programming outings to photogenic sites. (For example, the Portsmouth photos which I posted within the past few weeks were taken on a day trip with the NH Photo Expeditions Meetup Group.)

Usually photos are reviewed by your peers over dinner or drinks that same day, before any cropping or Photoshopping. This can be intimidating at first, but ultimately, it improves your skills (if only by ***shaming*** you to get the best possible image right out of the camera).

It's too early to tell whether being asked to share pre-optimized images will stifle my creativity in any way; in fact, I suspect that just the opposite will be true. It's simply human nature to be competitive and want to be the "Alpha Photographer." And by keeping an open mind to critiques -- and seeing the world through someone else's eyes for a change -- I think I'll become a better shooter.

Art and Politics

Sometimes, the international press does a better job at summarizing U.S. politics than does our own media.

Here's a quote from the UK publication The Guardian. Although it discusses Britain's politics and art scene, it could be uqually applicable on this side of the pond, too:

Art can never do the messy business of politics - the negotiation and compromise. But politicians are now grappling with a new politics about how to change the way people behave in their private lives: how they eat, travel, shop, exercise, drink. And art can open minds and change hearts in a way that our politics is singularly failing to do.

Art is not about the simple certainties of political soundbites. It engages emotionally, prompting a self-questioning. There is no predetermined answer.

Source: "Artists are now taking the lead policiticans have failed to give" (The Guardian; 21 May, 2007)

Sometimes It's Better to Leave the Camera at Home

My daughter was married on May 12, 2007 -- (congrats Amanda and Nick!) -- and I left the photography to the hired pros. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting a few snapshots taken by family and friends.

Does Culture Sculpt the Brain?

Can culture shape the way our brains process visual information? Perhaps, according to a recent New Scientist article.

Volunteers saw series of images, with some differing in the foreground and others in the background images.

Researchers found that the brains of older East Asian people respond less strongly to changes in the foreground of images than those of their Western counterparts. They suggest this difference is due to an increased emphasis on the background, or context, of images in some Asian cultures.

Perhaps that's why souvenirs look so much better in the store than when we bring them home from our travels....

Being Creative is All in Your Mind

9 Attitudes of Highly Creative People seems to be a wish list for most of us, but it's nevertheless an entertaining read.

New Photos of Portsmouth, NH

Here's a few photos I took yesterday during a trip to Portsmouth with the NH Photo Expeditions Meetup Group:









You can see all 25 images at my Flickr site, under the "0507portmouth" set.