I’m back home in Montana again. I got back here Friday afternoon, and thought to post a few brief impressions of what I saw over the past couple of weeks.

The Oregon coast is magnificent. The power of the ocean is overwhelming at first, as is the beauty of it’s meeting with the land. It’s a place I could explore further. Maybe I will.

San Francisco isn’t bad, for a town. Actually I really like it — I just don’t ever want to try to park a car there again. It’s a fascinating city and there’s so much there to get to know. Besides, my stepson lives there. I’ll go again, but next time I’ll leave my car behind and parachute in or something.

To those of you who live around LA I’ll just say, with all due respect, you can have it. I enjoyed being able to see the world my daughter lives in now, but hey — I’m from Montana. Those freeways and traffic are a little much. LA County alone has about ten times the population of the whole state of Montana, and they’re all in their damn cars. We drive here too, but we’re not all driving in the same place at the same time. My hair is a lot grayer than it was just a couple of weeks ago. Once I got through it all and hit I-15 heading north I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Until I hit the desert.

I’ve never been in such brutal heat as that around Barstow and Baker. I was almost afraid to get out of the car because I thought I might sink right through the pavement. The desert is a harsh, starkly beautiful place, no doubt about it. It’s also a good reminder that nature isn’t necessarily gentle and forgiving. Places like that can kill you.

I pulled over in Las Vegas for the night hoping for a little respite, but it wasn’t much different. Just busier. I got a room, went over to New York, New York for a couple of hours, had a good meal, blew about ten bucks on the machines, and called it good. I have one piece of short simple advice to anyone contemplating driving through the Mojave Desert in the summertime. Don’t do it. Go around. Not only can you avoid the worst of the heat that way, you can also avoid Vegas.

In typical pj fashion, I hit the Salt Lake City area just in time for the afternoon commute. Miles and miles of cars, many lanes of them crammed almost bumper to bumper, from Provo to Ogden. It took over two hours to get through it. I eventually escaped out the north end of it, and am firmly convinced that you couldn’t drag me to a big city with a tractor right about now.

Finally, yesterday morning, I climbed up out of Idaho over Monida Pass and saw the big, beautiful Welcome to Montana sign. I almost pulled over and got out to kiss the ground. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, but due to time and a limited budget I wasn’t able to explore as much as I would have liked.  Being able to finish my daughter’s visit with a road trip, and to be able to spend some time in both of my kid’s worlds was great. But, like I said, I’m from Montana and I’m glad to be back here. This is my place. This is my home.

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It seems to me that I’ve been running into more and more stories like this one lately.

Freelance photographer Lance Rosenfield was detained by police and BP security guards yesterday after taking photos near a BP refinery outside of Texas City, Texas.  Police reviewed his photos and took down his personal information and then gave it to the BP security guards, after threatening to take him in if he didn’t comply. There was nothing to hold him on, and they gave the photos back and sent Rosenfield on his way.

It sounds to me like plain old intimidation tactics.  Rosenfield is a seasoned freelancer and handled it well, but what if it had been a more timid soul?  I’m not a photojournalist, but I find these types of incidents troubling.  Are the authorities and the big corporations getting more aggressive with their scare tactics designed to keep citizens and journalists from photographing and reporting on things they don’t want the public to see? Will cases like this discourage others from covering stories that the public has every right, and need, to know?  Troubling…

Have a safe and enjoyable Fourth.

pj

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I can’t say I’m terribly surprised. I’ve known for some time that this was very possible. Deep down in my gut I’ve even hoped for it. I got laid off from my job today. Sometimes a guy just plain gets lucky.

I’ve talked tough in recent months about walking out of there and making a go of it on the internet, about turning my blogs into vehicles for bringing in the money I need. The time has come to put my money where my mouth is. It’s time to do it or die. I’ll have some time to do that now — wish me luck.

Above all, thoughts and ideas are more than welcome. They’re needed. Thanks all. Now I’d better get to work.

pj

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There are many fine photography sites out there, and I like to point them out now and then when I come across them.  I discovered one recently that I think is well worth a look.

Philip Hyde was a master landscape photographer.  When I first got involved with photography in the mid 1970′s, I’d come across his work now and then in books and publications devoted to nature and wilderness photography. It usually stopped me right in my tracks. It was superb. It’s easy enough to throw the word ‘master’ around, but in the case of Philip Hyde it truly applies. In addition to his photography work, Philip Hyde was also a strong voice in the environmental movement and in wilderness preservation efforts.

His son, David Leland Hyde, started a blog some months back called Landscape Photography Blogger. Though he’s a photographer in his own right, David’s blog is largely dedicated to the work of his late father. He organizes exhibits of his father’s work, has taken on the monumental task of digitizing it, and more.

Maybe you’re well acquainted with the work of Philip Hyde. Maybe like me, you’re familiar with a small part of it. Maybe you’re a younger photographer and have never heard of him. Whatever. Landscape Photography Blogger is a great read for anybody. For some of us it’s a fond look back at some great work. For a new generation, it’s an introduction to one of the past masters of landscape photography.

Hop on over to Landscape Photography Blogger and take a good look around. Be sure to give David a thumbs up for the work he’s doing to keep his father’s work and legacy alive.

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Most of us are familiar with the archive of photographs done by the WPA during the Great Depression. It is a magnificent collection of work done during a very dark time in our country’s history. Many of the works are photographic icons. Stark black and white images, they are still a part of our visual literature. Powerful, powerful stuff. So much so that many of us who were born after the depression grew up convinced that times were so tough in those days that even color didn’t exist. The world went on in black and white.

That’s not true of course, and a few years ago an exhibit was organized, and a book published of color work done by the WPA photographers. Bound for Glory it was called, and it’s a fascinating look at those troubled times. One thing that struck me about these photographs was that as hard as times were during the depression, life went on and the world did indeed exist in color. As hard as those days were, color adds a sense of normalcy to the scenes. Things just don’t look as grim as the black and white photos make them look.

I don’t know. To me the black and white photos have more emotional impact, but the color work seems more positive and optimistic and may be a more realistic look at life in the US during the Great Depression. Take a look and see what you think.

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I don’t know. Maybe you’re familiar with photographer Jim Brandenburg from northern Minnesota. Maybe not. He’s quite well known for photographing wolves, among other wild subjects near his home, and for work he’s done for National Geographic.  An award winning photographer,  he’s earned his acclaim. He’s very good.

I recently re-discovered a project of his from, oh I don’t know, ten, maybe fifteen years ago.  It became a book and a TV special they used to run on the PBS fundraisers you see every year.  For a period of ninety days back in the mid nineties, from autumn equinox to winter solstice, Brandenburg made one photograph each day.  No, he didn’t select one shot of several for the day, he only allowed himself to trip the shutter once for the entire day. One shot.  He made them all count too. They were published as a book, Chased by the Light, and if I remember right they were featured in a National Geographic spread. It was a virtuoso performance.

It got me thinking though. What an incredible discipline. What a powerful exercise. Anybody who works with a camera could benefit from a project like this. Not if you’re on a once in a lifetime trip of course,  or on a project to build up your stock files or some such thing, and not necessarily on the scale that Brandenburg did it, but maybe something smaller.  Maybe you go out to shoot on a Saturday. You can frame and view all the shots you want through your viewfinder but you can only allow yourself one exposure or capture for the day. Or maybe you want to make one a day for a week, or whatever. I think it would be a powerful way to sharpen your eye, to fine tune your photographic vision. What do you think?

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It’s pretty easy to start a blog about photography. Sign up with a host, select a few options, and there you go. Bingo. You’re on the web. Then comes the hard part — you’re all dressed up with nowhere to go. What do you do with the damn thing?

I wrestle with that question every time I sit down here, and I’ve yet to come up with a definitive answer. I’ve had various photoblogs over the past three years or so. I started out to post some of my own work, and to occasionally write some thoughts about photography. I’ll continue to do some of that, though I’m reluctant to simply post an endless parade of photos I’ve done. There are millions of blogs doing that, and many are quite good and a pleasure to look at, but why should I do the same? What makes my work special enough that anyone would care to keep returning to see it? Probably nothing — I don’t even like to look at my own stuff for long. I get sick of it. I’ll post some photos of course, but for me a blog needs more.

I don’t do equipment reviews. I’m not interested enough in equipment to get into that. There are many fine review sites that can steer a reader in the right direction. There are others that don’t. I don’t need to add to the confusion. Reviews aren’t my thing.

I don’t do how-to’s either. I don’t know enough, and besides, I’m a lousy teacher. The only advice I could possibly give on how to do it is to say just do it. You’ll figure out your own way. I’m not interested in how-to. I’m much more interested in why-to. Why do I do what I do? Why do you do what you do? That just might turn out to be the main theme of this blog.

One of my favorite photography quotes is by Edward Steichen. It says “no photographer is as good as the simplest camera.” I’m a firm believer in that; I think it’s profoundly true. When it comes to personal expression, art, no camera is going to make or break you. Only you can do that. Unless you are competing for high dollar commercial accounts or some such thing, the camera you use isn’t that important. It just needs to be functional. The rest is up to you.

But how about you, dear reader? What are your thoughts on equipment? On finding your own way to work? On what you’d like to see in a photography blog? Pass them along — I’d love to hear from you.

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You see flickr everywhere. Blogs have their flickr widgets pointing to their work.  Some have their own flickr group based on their blog.  I always wonder though how effective it really is in generating interest in your work.

I have my own flickr account but have yet to upload any photos to it,  and I haven’t decided yet if I even will.  Maybe, if it seems worthwhile.  Mostly I posts photos here, upload a few to my gallery site, and I have listings on a couple of photoblog directories. So far I’ve felt that that’s enough. I’ve thought that it’s more important to spend my time getting better at posting quality stuff rather than to scatter my energies at numerous other places.  But I don’t know — am I missing out on something?

Any thoughts? Any experiences, pro or con, with flickr? Is it a useful tool for building up a blog, or is it more likely a collossal drain on one’s time and energy? Let me know what you think.

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