Lady & Sculpture — public art and the public

In this second street photography essay we thought a narrative about image narratives might stimulate others to try their hand at this art form.  Modern cell phones and pocket point and shoot cameras seem designed for such applications. Sometimes a loan figure and at others a larger group gives these hastily composed images a context of our urban existence.  The narrative told by each is unique and yet they possess a universality that transcends culture and place.

Harvey Spaven’s street photographs are largely focused on people.  Nikols’ street photography tends to be more journalistic in style.  Other photographers present a more balanced approach.  Street photography by its very nature is what it is.  It either speaks to us or it does not.  Either the narrative presented engages us or it does not.  In essence street photography is fundamentally the art of the everyone.  Any and every person with a camera can make it and participate in the creating and sharing.  Since the proliferation of social media like Facebook, snapshots and street photography has grown.  A large percentage of the images on sites such as Piccsy are street photography.

Morning Meeting

Dennis finds tightly cropped images such as #17. “Morning Meeting” highly appealing.  “It is just the type of scene that we can all appreciate because in one way or another we have all been in our own Morning  Meeting,” he says.

Gondoliers-Venice

Are these gondoliers talking about politics or the apparent lack of business?  They are talking about what ever the viewer decides.  Here the contexts strongly suggest the images origin.   The image below, of a loan photographer looking up, is one that could be in any metropolitan area.  Few if any clues suggest what it is that hold this man’s attention.   In some ways this image is most appealing as it offers the greatest viewer interpretative input.

Look Up, look way up.

The title of this image is Tower Picture.  That title gives a partial clue to the viewer.  We urge you to take up the challenge of creating your own street photography and sharing it.   Here are a few more of the images in this series and remember you are welcome to share with us and others who read this blog.

Street Photography Two

Slideshow

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Some of these images will soon appear in the Fine Photographic Art collection offered at Sui Generis.  Some others will soon be included in the People Gallery at our Stock Image and Decorative Art site As I Found It.  We also wish to remind you that our Texture and Pattern site, Ideal Totem is always expanding, please visit for all those hard to find graphic art needs.

Two “ladies of a certain age” chatting, Casares, Andalusia, Spain

Street photography is a type of photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings and public gatherings.  This essay is largely based on the Wikipedia article Street Photography,  The operative word here is candid.  These are truly As I  Found It images.

Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography, in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society. This is largely achieved by the inherent narrative nature of candid photographic images.  Street photography often tends to be ironic and can be distanced from its subject matter, and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment. On the other hand, much street photography takes the opposite approach and provides a very literal and extremely personal rendering of the subject matter, giving the audience a more visceral experience of walks of life they might only be familiar with in passing. In the 20th century, street photographers have provided, what is thought by some, as an exemplary and detailed record of street culture in Europe and North America, and elsewhere to a somewhat lesser extent.

Many classic works of street photography were created in the period between roughly 1890 and 1975 and coincided with the introduction of portable cameras, especially small 35mm, rangefinder cameras, most famously the Leica, as used by Henri Cartier-Bresson, among others. The adjective “classic” from initial image capture to recognition in the photographic culture suggests a time period of about 25 years, which is similar to classic films, classic cars or classic rock, etc. A cultural aging or maturing process appears to be necessary to properly illustrate the “zeitgeist“ of the time.

Paris is widely accepted as the birthplace of street photography. The cosmopolitan city helped to define street photography as a genre and the photography helped to form the city as well.(Scott, Clive. Street Photography: From Atget to Cartier-Bresson. Landman Library: I.B.Tauris, 2007.)

The beginnings of street photography in the United States can be linked to that of jazz in the music domain, both emerging as outspoken depictions of everyday life. This connection is visible in the work of the New York School of Photography. The New York School was not a formal institution, but rather comprised groups of photographers in the mid-20th century based in New York City. One of its most notable photographers, Robert Frank, was a part of the beat movement interested in Black-American and counter cultures. Frank rose to fame partly on account of his popular book, The Americans. Raw and often out of focus, his images questioned mainstream photography of the time, such as Ansel Adams’s landscapes. The mainstream photography community in America fiercely rejected Frank’s work, but it would later become a stepping stone for fresh photographers looking to break away from the restrictions of the old style. (Westerbeck, Colin. Bystander: A History of Street Photography. 1st ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1994,)

Techniques:

Most kinds of portable camera are used for street photography; for example rangefinders, digital and 35mm SLRs, and point-and-shoot cameras. A commonly used focusing technique is zone focusing — setting a fixed focal distance and shooting from that distance — as an alternative to autofocus, particularly using wide angle lenses with their increased depth of field. Zone focusing facilitates shooting “from the hip” i.e. without bringing the camera up to the eye. Alternatively waist-level finders allow for composing the shot or adjusting focus without bringing attention to the photographer.

A waste level finder is usually a prism clipped on to the camera’s top or the twin and SLR reflex cameras of yesterday.

I have been known to scout a potential scene. Pacing the distance to the zone’s mid point to select the correct zone and that zone’s dimensions.  Once done the photographer then positions himself so that as people move into the zone images can be discretely made.  Other times one just keeps the camera at the ready and moves along the street and captures images to interest.

Street photography and documentary photography are two very similar genres of photography that often overlap while having distinct individual qualities. Street photography has the ability to document while documentary has the definite intention of recording history.

Documentary photography can be candid, but street photography is defined by its candidness. Street photography produces ironic amusement while documentary provides emotional intensity. The language of street photography is subtle and not as loud and outspoken as documentary photography often is. In the 19th century, the peak of street photography, most photographers were naïve to the fact that they were “documenting” history. As street photographers they had no definite intentions or goals beyond the production of a candid print.

Documentary style is defined by its premeditated message and intention of documenting particular events in history. The documentary approach includes aspects of journalism, art, education, sociology and history. In documentary’s social investigation, often the images are intended to pave way to social change. Documentary’s underlying motives complicate its ability to give a clear, impartial vision of the world. Street photography is disinterested in its nature, allowing it to deliver a true depiction of the world. Street photographs are mirror images of society, displaying “unmanipulated” scenes, with usually unaware subjects.

Both street photography and documentary photography do have another common thread.  That thread is the inherent narrative each image carries with it.  The documentary image when isolated from its companions becomes a street photograph that carries its own story.

The following slide show illustrates a number of street images. The captions are intended to explain the narrative that the photographer is trying to convey to the viewer.

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Some of these images will soon appear in the Fine Photographic Art collection offered at Sui Generis.  Some others will soon be included in the People Gallery at our Stock Image and Decorative Art site As I Found It.  We also wish to remind you that our Texture and Pattern site, Ideal Totem is always expanding, please visit for all those hard to find graphic art needs.

IMG_2066

What I mean by simple is well illustrated by this image of two Maple leaves against a dark background.   This is one of those serendipitous discoveries.   My friend Phillip and I were on  a short trail in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, it was about 4 pm.  We had hiked a short distance to a small water fall.  On the way back a few low angle sunlight shafts were creating interesting light but not necessarily interesting images.  Suddenly these bright leaves were just glowing with a strong shadow behind.

No good image gets ignored.  This first image is more or less raw.  It is as taken, with only some sharpening.  We will call it the base image.  All subsequent images are variations on this one.  In this essay we will do a variation on a theme type study.  The objective is to see what interesting, possibly useful and illustrative images can be produced.   The gallery imbedded in this essay hold a few of the many possibilities.

Keeping in mind the connection between image and narrative and the role of narrative in our humanity we will do some exploration.

IMG_2066-2 Variation 1

This first variation is essentially just color intensity and saturation enhancement.  This image is very high contrast.  At this point in my study no titles are used but I do try and keep track of the sequence as changes are made.

IMG_2066-2a Variation 2

Here in number two we simply build on the the first variation.   This time taking the saturation and darker tone ranges way up.  This creates an artificial texture in the leaves and removes all the texture in the background.  One function of the full black background is to remove any gistractions there.

IMG_2066-2ac Variation 3

In this version we simply crop the 2a variant.

IMG_2066-2ac1 4

This is one of the “filters” or image tricks that are commonly available with the user friendly editing software so common today.  I look at them as fun tools which may or may not be useful.  I just like playing around with them.   I think this one is quite nice.  I’m thinking that something needs to be placed a the center or vanishing point.

When I say “playing” I mean just that.  My approach is to try something just to see what will happen.  For me this kind of play or experiment is simple exploration of my world and the tools in my tool box.  It is another way of interacting with the image’s and my personal narrative.  I was one of those children that took every opportunity available to take apart anything just to see how it worked and was put together.  Sometimes I even got them back together and sometimes I was able to even fix things. (that is when stuff was made to be fixed or repaired)

I think it is this appreciation of what lay behind the facade that stimulates my modern day interest in photographic or image composition.  It is how the elements fit together be that comfortably or not.

But what does all this mean?  Does it mean anything at all? IMG_2066-2ac3 is the 6th variation, many more are found in the slide show below.

IMG_2066-2ac3 Variation 6 Mirror

This is a mirror image.  That is not truly important, however.   What is important is that one or more of these variations speaks to us.  That is, its narrative strikes a cord with the viewer.  That cord involves our humanity.  Every image is a narrative and we humans use narrative to make sense of the world.   In this case the image grabs my attention and I immediately begin to develop a story that explains it.

Please take the time to review the images in the slide show.  Consider what other things you might like to do if in the experimental mode.

Leaves A Simple Image

Leaves A Simple Image

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Pumpkin Patch

Mid January and winter is here.  This is a real old fashioned winter from my youth.  I never thought I would be writing something like this. Time has been relatively kind to me and my memories have only faded for the better I am sure.  I never thought I would be writing when I was a kid….. but here it is.  I did check the weather records too and you know we did have 3 to 5 snow days mot years.  That is 3 to 5 days a year when high school was candled because the buses could not run.  Half of school was rural and I lived the better part of 4 miles away myself.  We are talking late 50′s early 60′s here so not yesterday by any stretch of the imagination.

It was normal to have a couple of good dumps a year and snow on the ground all winter.  That does not mean snow-less Decembers, we had them too but only about 1 in 8.   I know I paid close attention to this stuff, as my heart throb at the time lived on a farm that was 3/4 the way through my route.  I know you are trying to find the connection between my nostalgia trip and these pumpkins.  None so don’t bother.

The reason for these pumpkins is bright orange!  They are the last hurrah of summer and I thought would cheer all of you winter, light deprived, soles.  Southerns or tropic dwellers you will just need to guess.   This time of year people, norther wimps (Canadians and Americans) are talking about going south to warm places.   Most people would think of spring or mid summer images to evoke warmth.  I don’t much worry about that.  Cold put on a sweater.   No, what these pumpkins symbolize is getting to that end point and all the great sunny weather between now and them.

It’s the end not the start that best describes the journey.  It is the climax of the narrative that draws the story together.   Between is only that which punctuates the time.   That is why so much modern communication focuses on the journey because the story is way to short for them to make sufficient money hawking it.  (I am resisting the urge to editorialize here.)

My friend Phillip and I were driving in Evanston Ill. this October and the “pumpkin patch” lay on a church lawn.  I was searching for some images to talk about this week when I saw this one.  Not like me to give these essays a short shift but this week what you get here is the best I can do.  Some very, very small and totally annoying vies has invaded my body.   I spend most of my time sleeping.  I like sleeping but do not like the loss of productivity associated with it.  Anyway I rose for a few hours between the chills and fever.   This is the brief result.

Now I hear my duvet calling me and it is too persistent to just ignore.   Remember it is the pumpkins not the spring flowers at the end of the journey.

Image of a Gicclée print on Canvas

Here we will examine canvas as a medium for Fine Photographic Art or for Decorative Photographic Art.

canvas stretched on wooden stretcher bars

Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric often used for making: sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required.  It is also popularly used by artists as a painting and printing surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame.

The etymology of the term appears to be: a word derived from the 13th century Anglo-French canevaz and the Old French canevas. Both probably are derivatives of the common or spoken Latin cannapaceus for “made of hemp.” Originating from the Greek κάνναβις (cannabis).  The uses of canvas is very ancient and materials have and still do, very from place to place and often depending on the usage intended.

The physical characteristics composition of modern canvas is what we are most interested in.  Modern canvas is usually made of cotton or linen, although historically it was made from hemp. Wikipedia tells us:  Canvas differs from other heavy cotton fabrics such as denim, in being a plain weave not a twill weave.  Canvas comes in two basic types plain and duck. The threads in duck canvas are more tightly woven.  The term duck comes from the Dutch word for cloth, doek.  In the United States, canvas is classified in two ways: by weight (ounces per square yard) and by a graded number system where 1 is the heaviest and larger numbers are lighter.

Canvas has become the most common support medium for oil and acrylic painting as well as Gidlée Fine Photographic Art printing.  Wooden panels were the most common support medium in Italy until the 16th century and in Northern Europe in the 17th century. Venetian sail canvas became very popular as it was readily available of very high quality.  The canvas medium has weight and portability advantages over wooden supports as well.

The canvas is prepared for, or by, the artist. The base preparation has important influence on the keeping, paint or ink transfer and textural qualities the medium.

Most commonly canvases are mounted on frames called stretchers. Painters usually paint on pre-stretched canvases while Giclée inks are applied before stretching.

What’s the difference between 100% cotton and poly/cotton canvas? Generally poly/cotton has a less natural look and feel and has a more consistent color with less texture than 100% cotton canvas.  Poly/cotton & water resistant canvases are generally used for signage, Decorative Photographic Art and display purposes, while 100% cotton canvas for Fine Photographic Art and museum or archival purposes.

The modern Giclée canvas can be described as:  100 % cotton blends – archival quality through poly-cottons ±60/40, water resistant coatings where appropriate, several textures (smooth, satin, mat and so on) are available, bright white color when desirable (different canvases have different white tones), neutral and acid-free chemistry.

At Sui Generis Images we use canvases that are all archival/museum quality, satin or mat finish, rated at ±350 gsm (12.5 oz/yard), 100% cotton, double weave canvas.  A high white point without optical brighteners which means it won’t turn yellow over time, is very important.   At Ideal Totem and As I Found It the customer chooses the printing medium he or she wishes to use.  It is hoped this and the other essays about materials will provide the kind of information our customers need to make informed choices.

Hoar Frost & Snow in Calgary

Calgary had a snow in early December.  It was not major, about 10 cm (4″) accumulated.  This event was different then the normal snow falls in Calgary.  For all of its duration the wind was essentially absent.  Calgary is normally a breeze place.  This lack of wind allowed the snow to accumulate on any more or less horizontal surface and a lot that weren’t.

The sun came out the next morning and I pulled on my winter boots, parka, shoveled the sidewalk and camera in hand started exploring my neighborhood.  Our photo friend and As I Found It/Ideal Totem contributor, Harvey Spaven did the same thing in his neighborhood and some of his pictures can be found in Ideal Totem”s Snow Gallery.  More of his and my snow images will be posted soon at As I Found It,  later in January.

Here are a few more examples of what I found:

Waxing Moon Hoar Frost & Snow in Calgary

Hoar Frost & Snow in Calgary, Waxing Moon too

Hoar Frost & Snow on Weeping Birch, in Calgary

Hoar Frost & Snow on Raspberry Cane, in Calgary

As you can see a fair variety of shapes and scales were available.  Shooting snow can be quite difficult.  If the light is even the gross and fine textures become blended or washed out.  If the light is strong then shadow detail  is almost always lost.  A clear blue sky is preferable to overcast conditions if for no other reason then the contrast that is available.  In the images here I was using a circular polarizing filter.

Hoar Frost & Snow on Raspberry leaves, in Calgary

The contrast available between the deep blue tones and the light or pale blue is important if the snow’s detail is being preserved.  The fine branching structures seen against the deep blue sky of the snow crystals illustrates the point.  These feather like structures simply blend into the snow background and only stand out against the darker contrasting color.

Getting the proper exposure is always problematic in bright snow conditions.  In this image I was careful to take the meter reading on the snow in the top  center of the image.  Being the brightest part of the image if it is properly exposed all else will fall into proper tone range.  That is a subject best discussed in depth for a Technical Article.

If your camera has an ISO setting choose a low value such as 100.  If it has a cloudy or bright setting choose bright.  Some point and shoot cameras have something called an automatic ISO.  I have one like that.  It is quite sophisticated in many respects but as to ISO it sets itself.   Most of these point and shoots have averaging meters,  most are center weighted.   Therefore it is the center of the image that is used from exposure control.   You just need to keep that in mind making sure the image center is not pointed at a dark object if all around it is bright snow.   By the way this advice is also useful on a beach or the water.  If in doubt then move the camera or reorient and take another.

For these images I was using a digital 35mm so I got to choose this stuff.  Think ISO 100 at ±f16 and ±1/500 sec. will do for most unless in the darkest shadows or brightest, starkest situations dominate the image.  Each one will be slightly different but this is about what was being done.

How you use your images is of course up to you.  The most important thing is getting them in the first place.  A sequence like this can easily make up a slide show, a memory series, an album or anything else you need some dramatic or detailed pictures for.  At our decorative art & stock image services, Ideal Totem and As I Found It you will find a wide variety of stock photos not unlike these.   Sui Generis Images also has a few fine photographic art images of hoar frost and snow.  Sui Generis’ galleries hold Fine Photographic Art.

Pentafied Calling, Geometric Photo Art by Nikols 2012

Decorative arts, is historically a term applied to the design and manufacture of functional objects.  It includes interior design, but not usually architecture. The decorative arts are often categorized in opposition to the “fine arts”, namely, painting, drawing, photography, and large-scale sculpture, which generally have no function other than to be seen. (after Wikipedia)  The image above started life as a image of a steel I-beam sculpture The Calling and is a large-scale sculpture. (see end notes)

Art pieces can be decorative, collectable or both.  A decorative art piece is something that is solely intended to be displayed to compliment a defined space.  A piece of collectable art is artwork that will likely maintain or increase in value.  Obviously they can be one in the same.  Obviously some art forms can and do inspire others. Obviously some decorative art pieces will not likely gain in value using any near term time measure.  Opinions about which is which will very among collectors, dealers and appraisers.    

Collecting and/or decorating with art is very personal.  The aesthetic sensibility of each person is different.  I am a photographer artist.  One would expect my home and office to be decorated with photographic art, specifically my own creations.  The reality is photography represents only a small percentage of that art and my own is in the minority.

An interior decorator, house dresser or designer, may be mostly concerned with decorating or staging a home or room whereas an art collector or enthusiast may select artwork solely based on how collectible the piece is. Others may decorate with and around collectable artwork.  People often buy artwork based on emotion.  They see it, it speaks to them on several levels almost all heavy with emotions.  Someone else may fall in love with the work of an unknown, because it evokes a meaningful or pleasurable emotion within themselves.  Some see or recognize a symbolism in the art and that becomes its greatest attraction.  By the same token that person may just as easily see an image and decide that is the one to complement the lampshade in the den.

There are those who would say using art works in purely decorative ways is an art in itself.  I would not disagree.  It is a vocation and talent for which I make absolutely no claim of proficiency.  Successfully staging a room can be rewarding.  Rooms can be staged by color, theme, period, purpose and so on.  Rooms can be decorated to produce feelings of excitement, peace and calm, mindfulness, or nostalgia.  Decorating with art can help define a room’s ambiance.

All that said, we are still left with the question implied in the title.  What is the difference or even is there a difference between Fine Photographic Art and Decorative Art?  To address that we must revisit our recent essay Fine Art Photography — FAP for a definition of Fine Photographic Art.  FPA takes image rendering one or two steps beyond the snapshot into an emotional place that transcends the purpose or location. FPA almost always has a transcendence or universality that ordinary images straight photographs can not quite match.  FPA melds together all the compositional, technical and transcendental qualities to give it, and its narrative, a true universality.  Just a couple of additional qualifiers.  FPA implies, and for me demands, the reproductions meet highest quality of materials and process standards and the editions are strictly limited in number.

In a conversation not long ago, a gallery owner referred to much popular photographic art, as “throwaway art”.  At the time we were discussion the appropriate materials and techniques to by used in filling a Fine Photographic Art commission given to Sui Generis Images.  I think Disposable Decorative Art (DDA) is a much better descriptor.   It is disposable in that the cost is relatively low for what one gets.  We have all seen DDA at the box stores, on line or in the framing shops.  The images are good if not all to my taste and already framed.   Change the room or to refresh the look and the art is easily replaced.  The real down side is your neighbors have the exact same thing on there walls, as do the people across the nation or beyond.

Fine Photographic Art is not like that.  A good quality FPA piece will cost between 2 and 4 times the DDA piece when presented on the same media at about the same size, for example stretched canvas.  The bulk of the DDA may look like it is completed as well, but close inspection shows not.  Most often the material media is of lesser  or unknown quality.

Since the FPA is limited in production and restricted in the reproductive method, at Sui Generis Images for example archival quality canvas and inks, it has a very good chance of appreciating in value.  DDA is mass produced, is available in a variety of sizes and reproductive methods; it is not likely to become a true collectable and not likely to gain in value.  My experience with mass produced DDA items is a 50% value reduction once it hangs on your wall.

Sui Generis Images, our sister blog and Fine Photographic Art site has only one product: limited edition, fine photographic art, on archival quality canvas.  As I Found It and Ideal Totem, on the other hand, specialize in stock photographic art and stock photography.  AIFI’s and IT’s art can be purchased in a variety of sizes and reproduced on any surface or material the customer decides.  It is Decorative Art and could be considered DDA.

Please note, the art at Sui Generis Images is unique to itself.  Sui Generis Images’, FPA’s are only sold through its web site and authorized dealers.  Free, no obligation quotations are gladly provided.  Experience our sui generis customer service.

Notes:
1. The Calling by Mark di Suvero installed in 1981-82 along Milwaukee’s lake front, in O’Donnell Park, it is owned by the Milwaukee Museum of Art, which sits ±200 feet east.
2. Pentafied Calling ©Dennis Nikols 2012 has not been released for sale.  This is its first public showing.

Press Here for YouTube Video

A solstice, be it winter or summer, is one of those events that speaks to all of us.  It transcends any cultural or other differences that exists between us.  Solstices hold meaning for all humans regardless of place or time, they have a universality.  Images are a universal language and the narrative they tell, holds a true and deep universality.  Combining an event of significance with the narrative of strong images I think results in a powerful message.

See a brief update at the end of the essay posted today 12/21/12

That is why I put this short video together.  I want to share the emotional experience of taking these picture with you.  Some of the images are already for sale at As I found It.  The sharing is not so much the pictures but the experience of being there and making them.  Sharing the experience of renewal as one cycle ends and next is about to begin.

This Alpen Glow sunrise sequence was made on December 21, 1010,  It represents about 40 minutes of elapsed time.  The morning was cold, very cold, -30 C cold.  Winter Solstice in the north, and summer in the south.  You will notice that the sun is not present in any of these images.  What is present is the sun’s light, Alpen Glow reflecting from the snow, clouds and light gray limestone rocks of the Rocky Mountain Front Range.    The sunrise time of the winter solstice at this latitude is about 8:40 am (MST).

I could have captured the sun itself, most images of sunrise and sunsets are commonly presented that way.  Here at Aa I Found It and Ideal Totem we do thing more unconventionally than conventionally.  A good place for me to include the sun rising or setting is only minutes from my home.   Many photographers do just that.  I have captured sunrises looking east, over the prairie, from that location many times.  You can see some of them at As I Found It.  What this also tells you is how lucky I am to live within an hour’s drive to the Rocky Mountains and close to the edge of a major metropolitan center.

In 2011 I made a second attempt at a slightly different location.  I say attempt because the cloud cover was such that no Alpen Glow resulted.  Three of us will head out this 21st to another location along the front range.  We will have our cameras on tripods about about 8:30 am.  Who knows if we will be successful or not.  The forecast is for a “few flurries”.

It looks like this is turning into a transition.  I hope you all enjoy my little video and share in the delight of capturing such great images.  Feel free to share it with your friends too.  We all live in interesting times if for no other reason then they are our times.  They are what we make of them.  They are not good or bad they simply are.  A soloists is a paramount of an ordered rhythm.  Observe it or not, the rhythm continues just as it always has, quite independent of humanities collective ego.  Like all of our narratives the story is what we men wish to make it and of it.  The rhythm of nature functioning in spite of our efforts.  Hopefully this injects just a little humility and sober thought into our collective life.  Our narratives will continue to spin the yarns of our time here and they will be spun in the context of timelessness.

I have also posted this essay at my science Blog.  Retread Resources Ltd. our commercial parent,  Sui Generis our Fine Photographic Art sister site and Ideal Totem our textures and patterns complement all combine to say we trust this solstice season and the coming year will bring only good this to you are yours.

Update 12/21/12:  The Tradition Lives. We did head out this morning and did manage to get a few images but they were pale in comparison to the 2010 set here is an example:

Calling 1

In my essay Fine Art Photography — FAP I approached this descriptive phrase as just that, a descriptive or adjective phrase.   Here I want to look a little more philosophically into the name, term or noun pair, fine art. We all have some idea or concept of what this is.  The idea or concept is influenced by our personal taste, education and culture.  If we are interested in holding a discussion than a common definition is best stated at the outset.   I could find no generally agreed upon definition of fine photographic art, nor of fine art.
The following is based on Wikipedia’s fine art article.  First off, Wiki editors do not consider fine art as a proper name.  I am of two minds here.  On one hand it is a phrase or two word term, used mostly as a descriptor or adjective.  On the other it refers to a class of objects and processes, such as dance, and in that context it is used as a noun and often as a proper noun and therefor in English should be capitalized when in the proper noun context.

Our sister site Sui Generis Images proudly states it produces “fine photographic art” also a descriptive phrase and not a proper noun.  However when we use the terms “fine art” or “fine photographic art” in the contest of an essay like this one, we will often be using them as a proper noun, such as in the quote: “Fine Art, from the 17th century…” which you will see below Wikipedia does not consider a proper noun or a proper name.  Yet from the context of the paragraphs it is being used that way.

“Fine art, from the 17th century on, denote art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept, distinguishing them from applied arts that also have to serve some practical function.

Historically, the five greater fine arts were painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry, with minor arts including drama and dancing.[1] Today, the fine arts commonly include the visual art and performing art forms, such as painting, sculpture, collage, decollage, assemblage, installation, calligraphy, music, dance, theater, architecture, film, photography, conceptual art, and printmaking. However, in some institutes of learning or in museums fine art, and frequently the term fine arts (pl.) as well, are associated exclusively with visual art forms.”

From that discussion the photo artists are fully justified in describing their work as fine photographic art or fine art.  Further we would be correct in saying Sui Generis Images sells Fine Art or FIne Photographic Art.  We usually state fine photographic art to eliminate any misunderstanding the more general name Fine Art might create.

Further down the Wikipedia page we find, “Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism and commercial photography. Photojournalism visually communicates stories and ideas, mainly in print and digital media.  I talked about this in the previous essay.  Fine art photography is created primarily as an expression of the artist’s vision…”  (Please see Wikipedia’s main Photography article for more.)

Moving on, others have written on this subject and the famous and infamous have commented on photographic art.  Landscape photographers such as Waite, Adams and my personal favorite H. H. Bennett framed their work with a precision and selectiveness that equals or exceeds other visual artists.  Sometimes it is serendipity and sometimes careful planning.  In any event  photographic art does not just happen it is created.  The tools may differ but the creativity and inspiration are the same across all the fine arts.

Some authors are more focused on what we might call the art of seeing.  Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The question is not what you look at but what you see.”  Visual artists of all kind practice the “art of seeing” perhaps more subconsciously than consciously.  Thoreau was most correct in noticing that people often look at the same thing, place or scene but see different things.  Some would say we see what we want to see.  Others that we only see that which draws the most attention.  To my mind the creative art of seeing is recognizing that which others miss or fail to recognize.  Creativity for me is founded in the idea of talking the ordinary and representing it in a new or different way.

Vision and seeing are highly complex physiological and physiological actions.  The art part comes in more as result then active effort.  We can try to will ourselves into seeing or finding the most ascetically pleasing vision of this or that.  The truth is we can not.  We can apply our aesthetic and technical training to the scene presented.  We can let our creative spirit or creativity run free.  Like all other artists, we photographers are successful sometimes and sometimes not.

I have observed well schooled and skilled photo artists working.  While they all appear to be doing roughly the same thing the reality is something quite different as their results are always different.  That difference is not always great but it is very real and sometimes it is apparently this small variation that makes a great deal of difference to the viewer.

All this being said, fine art and fine photographic art are therefore both a adjective phrases and  proper nouns or nouns. Capitalization is therefore applied determined by how the phrase is being used to describe or to identify.  Examples:  The products found at Sui Generis Images are fine photographic art.  Sui Generis Images sells Fine Photographic Art.

As I Found It and Ideal Totem also hold photographic art.  The stock image photographers do try to be creative.  That is clearly demonstrated in the galleries at both sites and the images shown in this blog.  Fine photographic art is not what one expects at either site.  Artistically conceived images are expected and we believe are delivered.

Here is one way of making your own holiday or seasonal greeting card or letter.  Please read my example carefully. ( I’ll reproduce the small text below so it is easier to read.)  This example is As I Found It’s Blog’s greeting to all of you, the readers.  Let me say again:  thank you for your support and I look forward to writing another 20 or so essays over the coming year.   The text box in the example reads:

“Thank you readers.  Since April 15, 2012 over 12,000 of you have visited this blog.  The blog went live on January 2, 2011.  It took 15.5 mts. to reach ±4000 visitors.  A few days before April 15, 2012 I discovered the counter had failed to keep count, it was stuck at the 3995 point.   I installed a new counter and here we are today.  The new counter did not allow a starting number other then zero, so the actual count is over 16,000.   As we approach the completion of our second year I hope we reach 20,000.  That is my hope.  My rational mind tells we at an average rate of 1,350 a month that may not happen.  I have no explanation for our apparent success.  The count number gets us nothing but bragging rights and my ego stroked a bit too.

I must be doing something correctly in the planning and execution of the blog essays.   For the coming year 2013, I plan to keep doing exactly what I have been, about one essay a week and a few announcements of importance, imbedding short slide shows and attaching the odd movie or promotional video.  I am working on some other ideas and will announce those that gel, as we get them implemented.

The Gas Light image, part of the greeting on top, is also posted at the end of the essay body.  Please accept a high resolution copy of it as an expression of my appreciation.”  Don’t forget to forward the blog or its link to any of your contacts that might be interested or just likes looking at pretty pictures. (Click the image below to get your high res copy.   Just right click and save the image after it has opened in a new window.)

All that now said, on to the meat of the essay.  I have been producing a family seasonal greeting letter for about 45 years.  It started back in my university days.  I simply did not have the time to write everyone and could not afford to buy that many cards anyway.  So I typed the letter using my Smith Cornea elite type portable, on a mimeograph carbon that I begged from the geology department secretary.  I then found some very cheep paper and we were off on a long term tradition.  I had no idea this would be a long term kind of thing.  In the late 80′s when clip art became popular and easily available, it decorated my letters.  In the 90′s, stationers were selling paper with seasonal decorations that would go into your printer or copier.  I persisted in making my own, by then I was emotionally invested.  That is how things get to be traditions by emotionally investing in the idea.

In the early 90′s it became easy to scan and reproduce your snapshots of children, grand children, pets and so on.  Those images have decorated my letters ever sense.  Sometimes in color others in monochrome.  My family letter tends to be presented in portrait format not the landscape pictured here.  That is only because it is way more text then graphics.   Large bodes of text present better in that letter style.  I believe this because most type is 10 or 11 point and becomes hard to follow across a wide page, as we mature.  I print my letter in no less then 12 point type and in a very plane font, my favorites are Geneva or Arial.  These plane fonts have proven to be the easiest to read.   The font in the example is Geneva 12 but it is shrunk by about ±50%.

Today with digital cameras and readily available software, most people can produce their own seasonal stationary.  Lots and lots of clip art also available either free or for a reasonable price.  I used a page layout shareware program but most word processors have all the capabilities needed.  If you need images and do not have what you want or you want something different then what everyone else has, think about a stock photo services like As I Found It and Ideal Totem.  I the gift offered here is one of the images easily located at As I Found It.

Of course if you are a computer sophisticate and have access to some of the fancy image editing software you can do wonders.  If not the stock services like As I Found It are here to help.  We don’t have images of your family or children but we do have images that will decorate and personalize your letters or self produced cards.

That is my seasonal greeting narrative and like all of our images, the one offered here has one or more of its own to tell.  I took his last December at Heritage Park in Calgary.  The park is open on the weekends leading up to the holidays.  As you can see the real gas lamps are festooned with wreaths and green.  What you may not recognize is the ancientness of the symbols being displayed at or around the winter solstice.   It would not surprise me in the least if they were in those ancient times also displayed at Stonehenge and other ancient circular calendar sites, scattered across Europe.

This Gas Light image is my gift to you.  Please accept a high resolution copy of it as an expression of my appreciation for your readership.  Don’t forget to forward the blog or a link to any of your contacts that might be interested or just likes looking at pretty pictures.  That can be our joint gift to others.  Click the image get your high res copy.   Just right click and save the image after it has opened in a new window.

Looking for that extraordinary special gift.  Visit our sister site, Sui Generis Images and look at the fine photographic art offered there.