If you have a horrible case of insomnia you could benefit from experiencing the show of Ed Ruscha's photographic "work" at the Humanities Research Center at UT....

If you know about Ed Ruscha it's probably because of his big, graphic, super-charged color litho prints of his "Standard Gas Station" drawings. Very graphic. Lots of diagonals. Rich color. One trick ponyistic approach. But what you may not know is that he made lots and lots of very, very boring photographs; mostly in black and white, of very, very boring things and then put them together in small books. The pacing and pairing of images in the books are not helpful in igniting any more interest or curiosity than the prints laid out flat on the walls in perfectly square museum frames. Not even the perfectly cut matts could imbue them with any sort of energy or allure. 

I went to see the show because I'd seen the (non-photographic) big lithographic prints in shows from time to time and wondered what his photography would be like. Hmmm. Imagine putting an old Yashica twin lens camera on the front of a robot and then programming the robot to learn what the least interesting visual construct might be for human beings and then to pursue endless numbers of these images. One book and show contained something like 48 aerial photographs of parking lots attached to stores or office buildings. Ed Ruscha did not take the photographs but instead hired a photographer to do so from a helicopter and then used the images for his combinative works. 

All the parking lots are about the same; mostly oblique shots, all in black and white. All well printed in the square format. None are remotely interesting. None have "hidden messages," stand out features or even a "where's Waldo" spice of antagonism to them. 

Ruscha later applied the same raw talent to Hollywood swimming pools but in this collection stepped outside his decades old comfort zone to create each swimming pool shot in painful 1970's color.

I was so embarrassed. I had gotten good night's sleep the night before I saw the show but I made the mistake of pausing too long in front of a collection of photographs of the fronts of strip mall stores. I must have nodded off around one p.m. and napped (miraculously, standing up like a sleeping horse) for the better part of an hour before a security guard came to see why I had been motionless for so long. He jostled me awake and I ran from the building so as to take no risk that the sheer boredom of the Ruscha show might paralyze me for all time. Having escaped I can only say that it is possible to take the construction of pure boredom and, through relentless manifesto-ing, contrive to make it into an academic art form. 

Rating? As many thumbs down as I could possibly muster. It's not that I have trouble understanding the context or intention for the "works" it's more that I think whoever thought to curate this monstrosity of soul sucking emptiness should be relegated to helping kindergartners learn to nap via art appreciation. This show gives kindling to the conservative republican spirit of despising all modern and academic art. If they ever find out Ruscha got grants to make this stuff all hell will break loose, and then real artists will have an even harder time finding funding or patronage..... 

Skip. Or take a pillow.

And then there was that day when we set off the low yield nuke because we thought it would make the sunrise look cooler. Too bad the models got vaporized.

Oh. My mistake. This one is just a geyser. Forget what I said in the title....

A. Molitor reminded me of this one through a circuitous route. It stands the (short) test of time. You might like to read it again....

https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2018/03/romanticizing-excess-occupational.html

One of my favorite "unsung" lenses of 2018; especially when used in conjunction with the m4:3 square format.

Just looking through folders of images from 2018 and I kept coming across files I really liked so I started diving into the file info to see how which lens was delivering the good stuff.  Disproportionately it was the Sigma 30mm f1.4 DN lens that made photos that made me smile. There's one series of square images from the Panasonic G9 that represent what I like about that lens and the way that focal length mixes with square crops on the smaller sensor. There's a nice 3D feeling to some images and a nice, flatness to others. A visual chameleon. And not so pricey.  Here's some samples: 

Breaking the new camera spell by looking at photos already in my collection.

This is one of my favorite photos from Iceland.

Yeah, yeah. I suckered myself into laying out more cash for yet another camera system. I sat down today to look at the range of lenses available in the Fuji system and I was in that "I'm doing important research..." buying mode until one of my clients texted and asked to see my gallery of images from Iceland. I pulled up the gallery on Smugmug.com and decided to buzz through it to make sure there were no images of me drunk and hanging from a chandelier that might make said client reconsider our working relationship. That's when I was brought up short. I was immediately reminded of how much I loved the color and detail of the images I shot with the Panasonic G9s. They are beautiful. I looked over at my selections of lenses for the G9's system and smiled. There wasn't one in the drawer I didn't enjoy using.

A stand out for me was the selection of images I took using the camera's square format setting in conjunction with the Sigma 30m f1.4 DN lens. The colors and textures make me sit up and take notice. In fact, I can't see much reason for pursuing any technical improvements for my use...

I can't really blame Michael Johnston's review (theonelinephotographer) of the X-H1 for my latest buying spree. Everything he wrote is true from my perspective. I think it's just human nature to presume that the grass on the other side of the fence is always greener (and yummier). 

Will I stop cherry picking the Fuji lens line up? Probably not.

Why not? Well, I can afford the cameras and lenses without any financial strain on my family unit. As one of my sage friends once remarked to me when I confessed to my terrible camera buying addiction: "Cheaper than keeping a mistress. Or collecting Ferraris. Or putting in a wine cellar and filling it up. Cheaper than collecting fine automatic watches."

I think most people are far too timid about funding their passions and hobbies. How tragic I think it would be to have saved millions and millions of dollars for retirement; to have planned to finally engage in that wonderful pursuit of art, only to get hit by a bus, or an errant anvil or grand piano falling from a building window,  and die the day after you turn over the keys to the office and the I.D. badge...

In a most curious set of circumstances a Fujifilm X-H1 joins the inventory here at the Visual Science lab H.Q.

It seems, sometimes, that intentionality drives the universe. But maybe everything is merely coincidental. I started my day yesterday pulling stuff together in the studio/office that I planned on giving away, donating or trading at my local camera store. I figured that if the guys at Precision Camera even just valued my collection of antiquated light stands, extra tripods (both video and otherwise) as well as a large collection of modifiers and more or less unused Pelican cases, by the pound I'd at least walk away with some pocket change. Maybe enough for a Big Mac and a shake; with a little cajoling I might even get enough for Super-sized french fries....

I handed off a tripod to a long time friend who would best appreciate it (he can be very old school about technique). I handed off one of those Tenba stand cases that opens up in the studio to present a "wall of stands" but when zipped together will keep stands and tripods safe, even from the airline baggage handlers. Everything else went to the camera store and, after three trips back and forth from the car, I had a pile of gear stacked up in front of the rental/trade-in/repair department.

My "advisor" who would value the gear left me to my own devices and, of course, I was drawn to the cases housing the used gear. I never mind buying from these guys because they are good about checking out used gear before putting it on the shelves. They also have a generous return policy that goes a long way toward taking the angst out of surrendering ever more money for our hobby/profession.

Before I go on I have to go back 24 hours and set the stage. I'd just read Michael Johnston's long Paean to the X-H1 model on his site, here, and he left me salivating to try one. Everything he wrote resonated with me about the handling and overall design of the camera. When I got home I saw that I had a message from an old friend who happens to work at Fujifilm. He was calling because he reads the blog and wanted to see how I was getting along with the X-T3. I grilled him mercilessly about the X-H1. He told me over and over again that the video and overall imaging quality of the X-T3 was better but I dug my heels in and kept coming back to ....... image stabilization. He finally relented and agreed that if I wanted a Fuji camera with image stabilization this was it. But he did advise me to get more batteries and to be sure and get the battery grip!!! I thanked him for his candor and moved on to other tasks.

Later in the afternoon I read some of the comments about the X-H1 on Michael's blog: TheOnlinePhotographer, and that's where my momentary fascination ended. At least for the day.

Getting back to yesterday (this is getting confusing...and I was there!). I was standing in front of the Fuji used case and there it was. For the first time I can remember there was a minty condition H-H1 with the battery grip and the little vestigial flash they've been including with their fleshless cameras.
The price was amazingly low. I had my sales guys grab it off the shelf for me and I claimed it as my own. During the transaction process they store staff was already fielding calls for the camera since it had just recently hit their website.

The trade-in guys came back and proposed a value for my collection of studio build up and I walked out of the store having paid a little more than $500 for a camera and accessories that I had, the day before, contemplated spending at least three times as much for.

We'll see in the days to come if the camera is as good as MJ thinks it is but I can tell you two things right now: 1. It gets pissy if you use older, non-"S" type batteries (it shows the battery symbol of the older batteries in yellow and the new ones in white....) and the mechanical shutter is the quietest and most gentle shutter I have ever experienced. To paraphrase the line Rene Zellweger delivers in the movie, "Jerry MacGuire", "you had me at 'click'......

More to come. Right now I'm finishing up the last of the post processing on my month long job venturing around America's hinterlands and I'm also heading down to Austin for the Holiday Party at my dad's memory care facility this afternoon/evening.

Yesterday I wanted a Fuji X-H1 but didn't want to spend the money. Today I have the camera and still have most of the money I didn't want to spend. I know I'm just rationalizing but it feels like a win...

I hereby dedicate the next two weeks (whenever I have nothing else to do...) to the cleaning and organizing of my studio/office in anticipation of the new year.

black and white mode in the Fuji X-E2. 

Stuff just builds up over time. When you can't see the surface of the top of your desk it's past time to clean off the desk. When you can't print with your inkjet printer because it became the convenient flat surface when sorting out portable hard drives then it's time to free the printer. 

I mostly used my office/studio for two things in the last six weeks; I used it as a way station between out of town assignments and I used it as a place to do intense post production and to charge camera batteries and flash batteries. Each assignment was a bit different and so the contents of cases got dumped on the floor, regularly, and rearranged. Sometimes new stuff got into the cases and sometimes lots of ill considered stuff ended up on the floor. Jettisoned by recent experience.

I've been living in the film past when it comes to hard core gear like tripods and light stands. I'm getting rid of all the old stuff. It's creaky and on its last legs (don't conflate us!) and it looks shabby when I'm out shooting in someone's brand new headquarters. I don't want my gear to carbon date me so much. I'm banishing the light stands that are sticky to open. I'm getting rid of the background stand set that has bent legs, sometimes spontaneously diassembles itself, and has a crossbar that has to be secured at each use with gaffer's tape.

I have a stack of four Apple laptops which cumulatively span twenty years of service. None of them can be updated to the latest operating systems and they just sit on a shelf reminding me of all the time we spent together and how much work flowed through them. But to be nostalgic for your collection of laptops is a bit daft. I will confess though that I can't quite come to grips with getting rid of the original Blueberry iBook as I'm certain I'll need to use it as a prop in some period piece short movie I'll want to make the day after I get rid of it.... the rest will soon be recycled.

All the drives I use with the computer are now USB3 so what the heck am I doing with a bunch of USB2 hubs and all the attached wiring? Those old ones are on the floor now, replaced by a newer, brighter and faster hub. 

And what about the Tenba heavy duty stand case that's been relegated to storing old photo umbrellas for the last 22 years? It was a great travel case for lightstands, tripods and assorted long, heavy stuff back in the days when airlines had fewer restrictions on size and never thought of charging by the ounce for baggage... Now, well, it's just been sitting there like a short Darth Vader presence, tickling my mind with the idea that someday we'll need to cram six or eight lightstands and a fat tripod into it and zoom off into the photographic fray like the old days. it's only truly functional if you need to bring lots of heavy duty stands and it should only be used in conjunction with strong assistants. It's got to go. 

Looking around the studio I can't imagine what I was thinking or how I managed to acquire (over time) 12 light stands when I only need five, at most. Some of the odd ones have to go. Why did I think nine tripods was better than two tripods. Yes, some of those will have to exit as well....

And while I'm on a roll it might just be time to get rid of the desk and the chair. That way I know I'll spend a lot less time sitting in front of the computer and shopping on Amazon....

In the cleaning mode and can't be stopped.