Echinacea

Nikon Coolpix 950

Currant Number Four

Nikon Coolpix 950 photo altered in Photoshop Elements

Today I’ve been thinking more about the topic of loss, and artistic perception in the context of having lost my Minolta A1 due to CCD failure recently. Having to resort to using my older Nikon 2 megapixel camera has changed the way I’ve approached photos. For one, I have far less control over the settings, (although with some tedious button pushing I can manually set focus,) and the results are often less satisfactory. But I also have found myself both looking at photos I normally wouldn’t have seen – like the two more recent abstract photos “Close Encounters” and “Partition”. I also feel like I have more liberty to manipulate images in Photoshop Elements. Perhaps my thought process is something like “Well the photo isn’t that great to start with, how much more could I mess it up?”

I believe the need to re-think my approach to creating photos for the blog has been a very creative exercise, and has helped me see more. My friend John once told me that Matisse only began to do his cutouts when he was too ill to stand at an easel. This is a good example of how loss of function may lead to great leaps of creativity. “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

It is interesting that when I think of evolution in this way I am biased to think of hardship, or more difficult conditions as being the primary driving selection criteria for species to evolve. But what about boons? Do changes we think about as “good” represent just as much of a force for evolutionary change?

A photographic example might be if Sony decided that because they couldn’t repair my Minolta A1 easily, they should send me a 10 megapixel Sony A100 digital SLR with a complete set of wide angle, telephoto, macro and normal prime lenses! (Ha, dream on!) Well as improbable as this scenario might be I think that it might help me change my perspective on photography as much as losing the Minolta in the first place and having to use an older camera (or having no camera at all.)

Well, the free digital SLR is not coming my way, but the useful lesson may be that I should try to regularly put my camera away, and just look and think about what kind of picture I might take if I had a camera in hand. I think that this exercise will help me see better and take more thoughtful pictures. It is free, and it may be more of a learning experience than actually taking a photograph!

For an interesting example of how adversity can influence creativity see the link to the right for takenbystorm.org

Partition

Nikon Coolpix 950, jpeg image altered in photoshop elements with luminosity seperation, levels and saturation adjustments.

Flower for Planting

Minolta A1
1/60
f4.0
ISO 200

No, I don't have the Minolta back yet. It is probably going to be in Laredo by Monday according to UPS. I still have a few photos left over that I wanted to post though. The old Nikon is slow, but takes decent pictures. It is like going back to driving a model T after driving a VW Passat. Canon and Nikon and Sony appear to be doing battle with their new entry level digital SLRs, trying to top each other, and I'm trying to restrain myself from putting in a pre-order until I know what the fate of the Minolta will be.

Close Encounter

Nikon Coolpix 950 with adjustments of histogram, and saturation in Photoshop Elements

Thoughts on Photography

In neurology the function of neural structures is often discovered when the structure is destroyed and the organism survives. In other words, by observing what the deficit is the neurologist discovers what a certain neural structure function is. Given this paradigm, I’ve been wondering what function photography, as embodied in the use of my recently defunct camera, plays in my thinking about the world.

Since I’ve been focusing mainly on macro photography, depth of field has been a very important aspect of the pictures I’ve been working with. Macro photographers often seek out a narrow depth of field, so that a blurry background will highlight the object being focused on. There are certainly other ways a photographer has of emphasizing a subject, but one issue seems to stand out when I think of depth of field. The phenomena of being able to perceive an in focus foreground and a blurred background does not seem to be a part of human vision, but rather an artifact of photography. One might argue that peripheral vision is blurry, and that is true, but in a photograph the blurred area is set, and does not alter. In contrast, when I am looking at an object with my own eyes it is clear, and in focus. When I shift my attention to something in the background, my eyes automatically compensate and will focus on the object in the background. The human function of sight is set up to always keep the object of attention in focus.

So one interesting thought about macro photography with a shallow depth of field, a focused subject, and a blurred background, is that it is really a statement by the photographer; a way of saying this is what I was looking at, at this moment. In a way the viewer of a photograph can in some way step into the eyes of the photographer and his or her mind as well and see what the photographer’s focus of attention was.

If we add the concept of the conscious and unconscious mind from psychology, we might think of a blurred background of such a photo as representing the unconscious part of the mind. I have taken photos that by chance, or by unconscious design, incorporate interesting contrasts in the blurred out of focus background. For example the yellow live bloom in Dried Coreopsis, and the branch covered with berries in the background of Oregon Grapes. These blurred images add very important visual parts to each photo, and perhaps suggest important meanings as well. Yet, I did not consciously select these elements while taking the photos, I was focused on the focused subject – the dried bloom or the foreground berries. So each photo captures not only my conscious focus of attention, but also my unconscious focus (or un-focus) of attention!

Perhaps this is the best argument for understanding photography as art. It is not just a portrayal of the external world, but also necessarily a snap shot of the photographer’s mind in the way he or she consciously and unconsciously frames the subject.

Missing my camera alerts me to the function of photography for me in learning to see differently, not only learning the basics of how to take a picture, but also learning to see what I do not see, or what I may unconsciously see. The camera becomes an extension of my eyes, but also allows me to look back in time at a moment and to catch a glimpse of what I may have been thinking, both consciously and unconsciously.

End of the Line

MInolta A1 non functioning CCD image

Well our Minolta A1 is on its way to Laredo Texas for a visit to Sony and a decision about whether it will meet the requirements for the recall replacement program.

More St. John's Wort

Minolta A1

Here are a couple more St. John's Wort shots I took the other day along with the one posted earlier.

I picked up our Minolta A1 this morning, turned it on, and noticed that the screen was black except for the menu options, and camera settings display. I checked to see if I had removed the lens cap. I had. I think the CCD sensor has died after only two years. Very frustrating, and more so because I feel like I have been getting the hang of taking photographs with it recently. A check on various websites informed me that there had been a recall for A1 series cameras that have had a similar problem. It also looks like some owners have had luck with Sony honoring the recall and replacing or fixing their A1s. (Sony bought Minolta's camera division 3/06) So keep your fingers crossed that I can get it fixed.

Rediscovered Truths

Minolta A1
1/60
f3.5 above and f4.0 below respectively
ISO 200

I had read in my Dad's old photography book that there were three factors that help determine depth of field. Apeture, distance to the object in focus, and focal length. For some reason apeture and focal length made sense to me and I have thought about these factors when taking pictures. The distance to the object factor was somehow lost on me until today when I was reviewing these two photographs and noticed the difference in depth of field as seen in the extent of blurr in the black eyed susans in the background. I actually didn't notice the difference until I started working with both images in Photoshop Elements. The difference is accentuated the smaller the images are - (I noticed it first looking at the thumbnails.) I had paid attention to the distance to the object in focus in these two photographs when taking them, and the difference was about a third of a meter. Of note the apeture is bigger for the first photo which would act as a factor to reduce the depth of field. But, it appears that at least with the Minolta A1 one stop has less impact on depth of field than a third of a meter distance to object!

If I remember correctly one of the points made in Plato's Meno was that learning is really like remembering. Patrick Casement in his book Listening to the Patient, points out that psychoanalytic theory that is often first learned by reading, is only really understood well when it is re-discovered by chance, one might argue almost independently or at least with a certain amount of theoretical amnesia on the part of the therapist, and validated as true by both the therapist and the patient. This photographic lesson helped point out to me how important re-discovering something in practice has the most impact in learning.

Artichoke

Minolta A1
1/160
f 8.0
ISO 100

I spotted these blooms earlier in the summer and hoped to return in time to photograph them at the peak of their purple coloration, but alas, returned about a month later instead. I initially I thought these were very large thistles, but then I believe that is what artichokes are.

Flowers by the Steps

Minolta A1
1/500
f5.0
ISO 200
Overcast day at 5 PM when I went back to take photos of the dried St. John's Wort.

Rock

Minolta A1
1/500
f5.0
ISO 200

More Hostas

Minolta A1
1/60
f5.0
ISO 200

Dried St. John's Wort Blooms

Minolta A1
1/800
f5.0
ISO 200

Above is the same bloom as below but photographed on a bright overcast day at 5PM.

Minolta A1
1/800
f6.3
ISO 100

I want to try to get back to these blooms either early in the morning or late in the day when the light is not so harsh.
Original photo taken at around 2 PM on a clear sunny day.

Dried Hosta Blooms and Ferns

Minolta A1
1/50
f5.0
ISO 200

Butterfly Plant?

Minolta A1
1/80
f7.1
ISO 100

I have to go back to this plant before the blooms fall off altogether. I like this shot, but I think different perpectives, and perhaps different light may yield some really great photos. Then I really need to do some garden clean up!

Spheres

Minolta A1
1/100
f9.0
ISO 100

These tiny droplets formed on a cobweb in the fan exhaust from our bathroom.

Oregano Unobscured by Bees

Hasselblad H2D-39 (In my dreams) - Minolta A1 (in reality)
1/100
f4.5
ISO 200

Neighbor's Weeds

Minolta A1
1/200
f7.1
ISO 100

Are near sighted (myopic) people more likely to be interested in macro photography? I have been finding it hard to see good photos that are not macroscopic lately and wonder if this is just my own preference for the macroscopic world or general lazyness since it is easy for me to find good macroscopic photo subjects around my home.

Bee on Oregano

Minolta A1
1/50
f4.5
ISO 200
I was zoomed in at maximum 8x digital magnification to fine tune the focus on some Oregano blooms when noticed them start to move around violently, then I caught a glimpse of black and yellow and realized a bee had landed on the flower after I had zoomed in. I released the shutter and got a series of three frames; this one was the best. I had been frustrated in trying to capture bees before, and given the slow shutter speed with this shot it certainly dosen't freeze the bee's action, but I thought the overall composition was nice, and the blurring of the bee conveys a sense of movement.

Dusty Miller

Minolta A1
1/60
f6/3
ISO 100

Empty Pods

Minolta A1
1/25
f7.1
ISO 100

Tree Seeds

MInolta A1
1/100
f3.5
ISO 200

Wisteria Blooms Through Window

Minolta A1
1/80
f9.0
ISO 100

Oregon Grape 2

Minolta A1
1/40
f9.0
ISO 100

Thimbleberry Flower?

Minolta A1
1/60
f6.3
ISO 100
+1 or +2 macro filter

Oregon Grapes

Minolta A1
1/125
f3.5
ISO 100
+1 macro?

Happy Birthday Mom!

Dream Catcher

Minolta A1
1/200
f4.5
ISO 100
Welcome Eamon!