Early Snow. Sourwood Lane, McLemore Cove, Walker County, Georgia.
Blog Note: We should be on our way home as you read this post, which was adapted and expanded from a post in December, 2020.
On November 19th 2020, friend and fellow photo-blogger Dennis Mook wrote about wabi-sabi, a Japanese term that means the appreciation of "beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete." But when he looks at today's landscape photography, he no longer sees a representation of nature or nature's imperfections: he sees photographs that are dramatic, over-edited, and over-saturated; hyper-real and hyper-perfect.
Dennis blogs at thewanderinglensman.com. You should read his blog.
On November 27th, 2020, he posted a photograph that was so quietly beautiful that I was compelled to write in his comments section "This photograph is quietly, modestly, perfectly beautiful. I would hang it on my wall anytime. It is a perfect counterpoint to the "spectacular," overprocessed photographs you wrote about on Nov. 19. . . it will have far more "staying power" on your wall than a so-called "spectacular" landscape. It will give the eye delight and rest every time you walk into the room."
From my very earliest days in photography my aim has been to capture a moment of stillness in each photograph. My name for my portfolio of "art" photographs is "Images of Tranquility." My photographs are mostly quiet, and I hope, quietly beautiful. I don't do spectacular. I just see what I see and try to show it.
Ricky's Trees. Daugherty Gap Road, McLemore Cove, Walker County, GA
My post-processing is pretty simple: I have an old (rent free) version of Photoshop -- CS2 -- that does most of what I want to do. Just an exposure adjustment in Curves, if needed, and light burning and dodging with the Brush tool, plus a simple adjustment in Unsharp Masking that enhances mid-tone contrast without affecting highlights or shadows, and I'm done. I don't believe in torturing my files to make them "art," because the art of photography is in the seeing. I know that digital photography allows for a great deal of manipulation, but I want my photographs to look like the scenes as I saw them, not hyped-up renditions that never existed in reality. I believe that nothing I can do after the exposure can make it art if it wasn't well seen to begin with.
As I said in my previous post, artistic quality does not come out of a camera, it goes into the camera. Or, as the great Steichen put it, "When that shutter clicks, anything else that can be done afterward is not worth consideration."
Rooted in the Past. S. Dicks Creek Road, Armuchee Valley, Walker County, GA
I
realize this will not make me popular with some photographers, and maybe not
with the art-photo buying public. So be it. I am thankfully, too old to care.
About the equipment: These are all digital photos. Early Snow was made with a Canon EOS 20D and the EF 24-85mm lens. For Ricky's Trees, I used a Canon EOS 5D Classic with the EF 70-200L lens. Rooted in the Past was photographed with an Olympus E-M5 and a Panasonic 14-140mm lens.
Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/
Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia
are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal
address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943
Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how
you would like your book inscribed.
Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
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