So what happened to the digital part of this blog?

Seems like the digital part got lost, you say? Yes, it definitely has been somewhat 'lost' .. What can I say?..not that inspired.. I've been working for many months on some 60+ digital files that are.... nice, interesting... but nothing sizzles the way darkroom does for me. But in the last few weeks, I went back over them again, and there emerged a few that I managed to find the icing to put on the cake, so to speak. Could I find more 'icing' for the cake?...perhaps.

But first! :-)... the 'whatever catches my eye' file.

Why We Travel
“Don’t go there,” the know-it-all, stay-at-home finger wagger says of many a distant place. I have heard it my whole traveling life, and in almost every case it was bad advice.
By PAUL THEROUX
Published: April 1, 2011
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/travel/03Cover.html
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A Guide to Entice Heads Into the Clouds
Gavin Pretor-Pinney confronts his new book’s major problem right up front. “You might well think,” he writes, “that cloud collecting sounds like a ridiculous idea.”
“The Cloud Collector’s Handbook,” published by Chronicle Books, is a serious yet charming field guide to clouds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/science/29clouds.html?_r=1
Published: March 28, 2011
By Cornelia Dean
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Several interesting articles about the new media in The Atlantic Monthly, April 2011:
Learning to Love the (Shallow, Divisive, Unreliable) New Media
By James Fallows
"Everyone from President Obama to Ted Koppel is bemoaning a decline in journalistic substance, seriousness, and sense of proportion. But the author, a longtime advocate of these values, takes a journey through the digital-media world and concludes there isn’t any point in defending the old ways. Consumer-obsessed, sensationalist, and passionate about their work, digital upstarts are undermining the old media—and they may also be pointing the way to a brighter future."
"We have created a technolgy that has wonderful potential, but increases our ability to lie to ourselves and forget it is a lie."
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/04/learning-to-love-the-shallow-divisive-unreliable-new-media/8415/
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A Vaster Wasteland
"Fifty years after his landmark speech declaring television programming a 'vast wasteland', the author surveys the reshaped media landscape and lays out a plan to keep television and the Internet vibrant, democratic forces for the next half century."
By Newton N. Minow
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/04/a-vaster-wasteland/8418/
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Suit over purported Ansel Adams negatives settled
SAN FRANCISCO – A California man has agreed not to use Ansel Adams' name to sell posters and other merchandise connected to dozens of glass negatives he bought at a garage sale and claimed were the renowned nature photographer's work.
"I want to share this work with as many people as possible," he said in a statement. "I think that the public will appreciate these stunning images."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110315/ap_on_re_us/us_ansel_adams_lost_work
Glad to see this has been resolved, highly in favor of AA's trust.
I don't think the images are stunning, I think Mr. Rick Norsigian is full of it, and should be relegated to obscurity.

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SF residents learn to coexist with urban coyotes
Wildlife researchers estimate that about a dozen coyotes live in San Francisco, with the first sighting in decades reported in 2001 in the Presidio, a federal park and residential neighborhood located on the city's northern tip.
The coyotes' ability to adapt to life in the country's second-most densely populated major city has intrigued experts and provoked even far-fetched theories about how they came to set up residence in a city surrounded by water on three sides.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110313/ap_on_re_us/us_san_francisco_urban_coyotes
'It's about time' on this one, quit calling coyotes villains.
All they want to do is eat, and they are not interested in messing w/ humans.
A great comment to this article:
"I keep finding these empty boxes from Acme Products.....Flying suit, complete with cape?....Rocket-powered shoes?....Giant rubber band?"

Yep, it's wiley coyote and the roadrunner!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUq9hynzCVo

and another comment:

"There's a lot more dangerous things in San Francisco than coyotes"

Ain't that the truth!!

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Joshua Trees Losing Ground, Fast
By Gretchen Weber
March 24, 2011 | 3:58 PM
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/03/24/joshua-trees-losing-ground-fast


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FEBRUARY 26, 2011

All Hail ... Analog?
When it comes to the quality of photos and music, the digital revolution may be failing us.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703529004576160300649048270.html#ixzz1GiM9gHZ8
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Onward, to those digital montage images. Even though they might be... uh... 'failing us'...

I am always working on themes that I started on a long time ago.

I think everyone has some themes of one sort or another that they keep working on. Here's a darkroom print from 17+ years ago, that got one particular theme started:



I like... the beach, the sand, all that washes up.... & the skies. Mother nature puts on a great show, 24/7/365.

(If you're in the mood, here's a nice slide show of shells:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/07/12/science/071210Shells.html

My mind works the same way as with darkroom montage - it ain't gonna change.
(If I was 30 y.o., i would worry about my 'attitude'.. but at almost 60? I don't give a flying f*** anymore.)
But I do find myself wandering off this beaten track, as you can see below...

Here's 10 of my latest digital montage efforts, you can see the images and download a small PSD file to see how they work, at:
www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2011/WorkingOnThemes/index.html

Next entry, definitely darkroom :-)