Have a 'bang-up' July 4th!!

First, From the 'whatever catches my eye' file:

I know we all hear all kinds of negative things about the US Military, it's pretty easy to throw that stone.
They don't always do things right.
(Is anyone reading this perfect?? Helloooo!!! I highly doubt it.)
BUT!... they are capable of great good, when they put their minds to it, and I think they are definitely trying as best they can.
The circumstances they have to work with? ..would leave about all of us reading this as definitely helpless and useless.

When Afghans Seek Medical Aid, Tough Choice for U.S.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/world/asia/29viper.html?hp

'Stung by a venomous snake in a primitive and isolated corner of a war, helped by a persistent father and a chain of people who heard him, Sadiq had reversed Afghanistan’s cruelest math.'
If this is what my tax dollars contribute to??? I contribute, MOST happily!!

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Op-Ed Contributor/ NY Times
America’s General, Afghanistan’s Friend
By KHOSHAL SADAT
Published: June 25, 2010
Kabul, Afghanistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/opinion/27sadat.html?hp

"..I never had the opportunity to say goodbye to General McChrystal. I hope he will return when there is peace in Afghanistan, because he will be the father of that peace."
If you haven't read the profile in Rolling Stone magazine, you should

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Guards Of The Revolution - Iran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL-GdeJef8A&playnext_from=TL&videos=cl0vcbXUEJ0
16 minutes - check it out.
If you have any interest in what is going on there, CHECK IT OUT!

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As technology advances, deep reading suffers
Nicholas Carr
Sunday, June 20, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/20/INL91DU44K.DTL&tsp=1

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Report: Toxins found in whales bode ill for humans
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100624/ap_on_sc/whaling
By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer - 6/24/2010
AGADIR, Morocco – Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth's oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals, according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.

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As technology advances, deep reading suffers Nicholas Carr Sunday, June 20, 2010 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/20/INL91DU44K.DTL&tsp=1





I haven't touched on any digital images in a while, have I?
Well, with July 4th drawing near, I remembered an image I did a few years ago for a friend who was having his 60th Birthday, and I made him an explosive card for the event.
(The image was 'explosive', not the card.)
It started w/ a big firecracker my boss gave me - Why? I don't know. In late May, the California fire season starts, and setting of fireworks is pretty much a big no-no. By July 4, it's an even bigger NO-NO!
I could however scan the sucker, for later use.
The scan, I can use. The firecracker? Probably not, ever.
So I came up with this image.
You can download a small Photoshop file to see how it works,
and you can download a larger image file, if you'd like to do anything with it, help yourself.
It's at:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2010/July4


A while ago, I promised a second scanograph... which died along w/ several hard drives a few months back.
I ended up finding it on a back-up disc, so here it is.
I can't offer a layered Photoshop file, only a 'before'(the scanograph) and the end product/image.

This one is made much like the previous one - a scan of a bunch of stuff...
I then added to it, w/ digital images.
No big secrets, other than working at it, and adding more things to the image, a layer at a time.
In the darkroom, it's 'shit or go blind' time, the developer only lasts so long, I've got a few hours or so from the time I start a print until I have to finish it. And once I've made exposures on the paper, there's no 'command undo'. Working without a net, so to speak, like live performance musical improvisation.
Digital is the exact opposite, you can hold anything in suspension indefinitely.
The basic scanograph is years old, probably done a rainy/foggy Saturday or Sunday.
Didn't know what to do with it, or the other 4 or 5 scans I did that day.
Then there was another 'rainy/foggy Saturday or Sunday'... and I returned to the image.
I constantly collect sky images, both on film and digital... I added the skies (actually one sky, copied and stretched in several ways) on layers above the scanograph, and erased carefully to reveal what was below. At that point, I didn't know what else to do, and so hit command+save, and parked it.
Months later, I took a day trip to Marin Headlands, and shot many frames of waves crashing on the beach, it was a particularly 'high surf' day, which took many captures of, so I added one of those frames to the bottom.
As usual, a page at my website:

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2010/Scanographs2/index.html

Related blog entry: March 14, 2010
http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2010/Scanographs/index.html

Next time round?... probably some darkroom, maybe with some hand-coloring, too.

A Departure?.. A Mysterious Cruise...?

But first, from the whatever catches my eye file:

http://www.tnr.com/book/review/the-uses-half-true-alarms

The Shallows: What The Internet is Doing to Our Brains
A book by Nicholas Carr
"Carr grabs our lapels to insist that the so-called information society might be more accurately described as the interruption society. It pulverizes attention, the scarcest of all resources, and stuffs the mind with trivia."
I noted the initial article Mr. Carr wrote in The Atlantic magazine some two years ago, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in this blog. Glad to hear he has expanded on the topic, it's well worth our attention.
Check it out!

No, Seriously, Why is the Sky Blue?
http://news.discovery.com/earth/no-seriously-why-is-the-sky-blue.html

Weird Clouds Look Even Better From Space
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gallery-clouds/



Historic Polaroid collection going to NYC auction
By ULA ILNYTZKY, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, June 12, 2010



This photo provided by Sotheby's shows Ansel Adams' "Canyon de Chelle National Monument, Arizona, 1942." The image is among 1,000 Polaroid and gelatin silver prints by some of the biggest names in 20th-century photography being offered at Sotheby's on June 21-22 as part of a bankruptcy court-approved sale.The largest number of works were taken by Adams, about 400 Polaroid and non-Polaroid images.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/06/12/national/a104740D58.DTL&tsp=1


Wouldn't it be nice to review this collection before it gets sold?? WOW!
http://www.anseladams.com/index.html
I've been close to where Ansel A. took the photo above,
and I've gotta tell ya: the trail down from the rim to White House ruins is totally treacherous.



On to photography...


Not sure what to title this image. Is it a departure?... a mysterious cruise?
or just a long walk off a short pier?

This the second print of the day 4/17/10. Initially, it didn't work out so well, and made me aware that maybe doing a photoshop sketch that looked OK wasn't always a ticket to final darkroom print that worked well. It made me 'rest on my laurels' which is never a good idea.
C'est la vie! - sometimes it's good to get a 'check-up from the neck, up' by whatever means it is accomplished.
This image (above, at left) definitely went thru some development changes, way more than I usually go through, before I finally was happy with it.
The dock was shot somewhere along the Salton Sea, in So. Cal., the ship was shot in SF Bay, during a 'fleet week' thing...and the clouds ( behind the ship masts) come from Nevada, Xmas 2008 trip.

I thought it would come together much better than it did. Perhaps it was late in the day, and I was fading.
The ship is too clear and detailed, I wanted it to be 'fuzzier', in some way, and to 'sit' on the shoreline, so that the shoreline and ship became one.
And the sky I burned in, in the middle from the left edge was kind of a desperation move - a 'the day is ending, I am fading' thing.
It definitely deserved a second pass, or more work of some kind - I'm always up for a mysterious cruise(=trip) of some kind :-) aren't you?
Instead of immediately printing it again in the darkroom, I tried a different approach, for a change - what happens if I scan the print as is, and scan some additional negatives, and make a hybrid 'darkroom & digital' image?
I discovered a neg that added some interesting things to the horizon - taken at Ocean Beach, SF, and I added that digitally (above, at right), but ya know what?....... it just didn't have that... 'magic' that I look for, where the sum is more than the addition of the parts.
Sooo I went back to the darkroom, and printed it again. After I exposed the dock/shoreline at the bottom and the ship, i questioned the sky I had used before. There must be something better....
And I found it.

And it was much more compatible/contributory to the concept that was already brewing, that of a 'departure gate for a mysterious cruise'.
And that was the print I can call 'final'.
As usual, for more, a page on website w/ larger images.

www.bobbennettphoto.net/BeachBlog_2010/MysteryShip