Heading West

Blog entry No. 100 ! Thanks to all readers and re-visitors.
I use the occasion to delight you with a selection of images of an exhibition I did in 2002 in Germany. Took me five years to finally scan the negatives, even I am not convinced yet, what will survive on the long term, files or negatives (files on DVD will def. loose based on current studies).
All images from this series (Exhibition was titled "Heading West") are shot with a Bronica ETRs and a pano back or 6x4.5 back, the locations are in Nevada and California.

Creative Time and Space

Some reflection about creative output or value-time. Do you realize, the more you are distracted, the less you get done or the less creative ideas you have ? Some observations:

• The more equipment I bring along, the less focused I am. Always thinking which camera should I use now.
• I sit in my room/lab/photo office (whatever you call it) and I get distracted by the various books I want to read/look through or finish, by the stack of negatives I need to scan, the number of images I want to print and frame, the untouched book project, surfing the web for inspiration, writing these blog.
• The best creative ideas (for books, projects, experiments) I get while traveling in airplanes or lonely hotel rooms on office trips (assuming its a dark, cold and less-interesting environment around the hotel).
• It seems there are creative time corridors during the day, you should find out about yours.
  
• The more GB's of images you try to produce on a trip the less you create, you get stuck with sorting out the images. Rather shoot less.
• I feel not satisfied when I dont get anything done during a whole day, but also very happy when I finish only one thing.
  

Conclusion: You can do only one real creative thing at a time. Try to focus and let it flow, anyway you cant force the ideas to come. Whatever we do, we wont be able to visit all places we want to see and explore, work out all ideas and so on. Maybe thats not the point anyway, just enjoy doing what you like.

I write these lines, while scanning 5 year old negatives, sorting other image files on my harddrives, cleaning the clogged printerhead for the 5th time in 4 weeks and thinking of the next entry in my blog, which will be number 100.
My 2 cents for today.

Vertical = Panorama ?

The question might be technical or rather philosophical. What defines a panorama ?
[pan- + Greek horma, sight (from horn, to see; see)] or
An unbroken view of an entire surrounding area. (link)
From this prospective a vertical would not be panorama, but you can bend it by lying on your side and seeing a scene (90 degree). The vertical is shot with a panorama camera, so does this fact make a vertical equal a panorama ?
To be honest, I dont care. I love both and sometimes I feel like turning my 6x17 by 90 degree and shoot !
Some subjects really ask for the vertical format, sometime you need to think out of the box (or lets say out of the panorama) to see it (bot as photographer and as viewer!).
I will do a little presentation about Panorama Photography during Photo Imaging X-change 2007 (held in conjunction with Imaging Expo Singapore 2007, November 1-4). So if you happen to be in Singapore, feel free to drop by. There a lots of other interesting workshops and presentations as well. More info @ www.pix-singapore.com

I share some verticals with you (also from my last Australia trip through Queensland).

Queensland Panorama

I still want to share some panoramic work that I made during the recent Australia trip. I have been off to Germany for the last 2 weeks, so while being really offline, I didnt update this page, your bear with me. Some more thoughts about panoramic Australia: So much I appreciate the panoramas by Ken Duncan or Peter Lik for their craftsmanship, experience, strong colors and so on, I sometimes dont feel like following their style and do another similar shot. Of course there are only limited ways to do landscape photography, no doubt. A panorama is special, on recent trips I occasionally didnt make a panoramic shot because its already there, nothing new, or I didnt find that angle, that view, which is new. With this attitude you wont find any leftover landscapes which has not been shot 100.000 times before, you might say, just think of the 12 (10?) Apostles in Australia or the famous black tree in the red Namibia desert. But at the end of the day you shoot for yourself ! So I share some different black and white views, which are not necessary typical for Queensland or Australia, but for me they are ! Cheers.