Old Brain. Tough Love. New Hope.

Join us as we try and make sense of the 6,000 buttons in Photoshop that all seem to do the same thing - the wrong thing." (Andy Morris)

My wobbly orbit recently sent me careening through the Scott Kelby Universe. I'm tempted to call him a one-man corporate megalopolis black-hole-of-information photography instructor salesman, except that he's not a man. It's rather obvious that he never sleeps and therefor must be a Series 8 Android on a mission to drain away all of the free time (and money) from the photographer versions in our own frail, human race. But I digress.

I lost part of a day over Episode 68 of The Grid, subversively called "Tough Love." Another viewer succinctly described the show as, "You're a lazy photographer who sleeps in, doesn't take advice, puts technical stuff over composition, buys gear you don't need, and takes cruddy photos."

Hey! Looks like they're finally doing a show about me. Maybe I should watch it before sending a link to mom.

It's true, though, most of it anyway. I despise getting out of a warm bed. I always think I know more than the "picture takers" I meet with cameras - regardless of how many times they've proven me wrong. And I'm always finding dusty accessories that I bought and never got around to using. However, a couple of my photos are kinda' non-cruddy, and I have never been one to put technical stuff over composition. It's this last one that finally slapped me awake.

My computer skills suck, and I know it. Somehow I've gotta' get better at this technical stuff.

Back in the old days, you could be a good photographer without any computer skills whatsoever. Zero. Zilcho. Old Ansel worked his camera magic before computers were invented, or at least back when one computer occupied an entire climate-controlled room and wasn't yet up to playing "Pong" (Google it you youngsters).

No more. Digital editing replaced darkroom skills years ago, and now computer skills are hiding a lotta' lazy camera habits.

Nowadays, you're virtually required to be a computer jock to use a modern camera. It's no longer enough to just know the Nikon/Canon side of the family, now you've got to spend your days and nights with Ms. Adobe, or one of her less well-endowed cousins. From my fuzzy viewpoint, it looks like some of today's photographers who are climbing into higher orbits are as good or better with a computer than they are with a camera. Computer skills are now at least as important as camera skills, if not more. Scott Kelby slapped me upside the head with this ugly reality.

After a week or two of "Tough Love" induced heartburn, I reluctantly checked myself into Photoshop rehab. Well not exactly Photoshop, more like Lightroom. I've used Photoshop for many years and can skate by on a dozen or so buttons that I know how to push. But I just added Lightroom 4.3 for some video rendering stuff I want to try (more gear I don't need?). And you know what? Lightroom ain't at all like Photoshop. I spent the first day just figuring out how to "Import" and the second day trying to figure out where the hell my imported images went to.

Short answer - they don't exist!

This hybrid "Catalog" engine in my Photoshop "Foldered" brain was driving me insane. So I finally did it. I went online and signed up for several software classes and webinars. I am finally listening to and learning from younger - and smarter - photographers. There, I said it.

The next month or two should determine if my old brain cells are still flexible enough to split tone my shadowy computer skills enough to highlight my new metadata mind. Only then will I try a Photoshop class.

Behind the keyboard: Here's a relatively new blog that deserves more readers. It's called, "Photoshop Scares Me." It's written by a guy named Andy who wears a horse's head. What more do you need to know?

The Astro-photography Addiction

Full moon rising over Mount Saint Nicholas, in Glacier National Park (c) John Ashley

Astro-photography is not only an art form, but it's also a type of addiction. It's either too challenging and you give up, or you get totally hooked on it. And if you're an astro-addict like me, then you probably watched last night's "hangout" live, featuring a panel discussion by eight of the best astro-artists. Either that or you watched the YouTube version today after being out all night photographing the full moon. That would be me.

I spent the evening on snowshoes, atop six feet of snow on a mountain ridge, in order to place the moonrise against one of Glacier Park's snow-encrusted mountain peaks. To top it off, I stopped by Lake McDonald on my way home to shoot some test exposures with two new lenses. It was there, around midnight, that a local amateur showed up with his camera - he had also developed a night photography addiction, and was planning to be out until 3am. I shamelessly encouraged this behavior by introducing him to light painting.

It's comforting to know that there are people out there who appear rational, functional and otherwise normal, but who also feel this insatiable need to stumble around in the freezing darkness with a camera. I'm in good company.

Canon's New Sensor Sees in the Dark

Top to bottom: stars, candlelight, moonlight

I know, I know. I'm waaaayyyy behind here, but I hope to start catching up after this weekend's "Made in Montana" wholesale show.

Meanwhile, here's a recent press release (with short video) that pretty much blows my mind. Now that I have many thousands invested in Nikon bodies and aspherical lenses for nighttime astrophotography, Canon drops this bombshell into my little world.

Canon has developed a new low-noise CMOS sensor that sees in the dark and blows Nikon (and Canon's) current top-of-the-line DSLR bodies out of the water. Canon says they're developing this new sensor for HD video, and it looks like they are aiming for the security camera market. But sooner or later, this new technology is sure to find its way into DSLR cameras. When that happens, look out. Our small but growing astrophotography world will be turned upside down.

I hope Nikon is paying attention, maybe even conducting a little corporate espionage. I'd hate to face my Canon friends if I have to divorce Nikon after 30+ years.

Earth has a fever. Do you?

"I imagine myself as an old man sitting on a rocking chair. And I hear my daughters saying to me, 'What were you doing when this monumental change was happening?' And I'd like to be able to say... that I was doing everything I knew how to do with the skills that I had."  (Photographer James Balog, on addressing climate change now)



Damn.

Every so often, an exceptional person uses a camera in a way that really stabs at me, keeping me awake at night. Photojournalist / nature photographer / mountaineer James Balog does just that with his visual creation, "Chasing Ice." I was once young and skilled and driven, and what did I do with all that chit? I chased testosterone (sports photography) and estrogen (female companionship). Maybe I should have done something, oh I don't know, useful, instead.

Like a little five-year photo project. Like using 34 Nikons to shoot a still frame once every hour, 27/7 for years, and meticulously assembling the frames into time-lapse videos. Like documenting the disappearance of 15 glaciers in Montana, Alaska, Iceland and Greenland.

Like stepping into the crosshairs of the monied interests to make a stand for, literally, your children. Christians call it, "bearing witness." Buddhists might consider it part of maha-bodhi, or "attaining great awakening." Conservationists often describe it as "giving voice" to an imperiled landscape or endangered species. 

Don't these ideals sound like cool uses for a camera?  What would be a cool thing for you to do with your camera?  Make free portraits for the poor?  Photograph dying infants for their parents?  Empower physically challenged adults?  Give voice to impoverished Americans?  What is "IT" for you?  Can you do it?

James Balog and his project equipment

James Balog did it. Is doing it. He started out as a self-described climate change skeptic. Then he got curious. So he focused his skill set on examining the question. And he used his connections to leverage one man's quest into a team effort. One or two cameras turned into 25 Nikon D200's, a few D2X's, and a film crew. The "Chasing Ice" documentary - with all of its technical challenges - was just the first half of his project.

The second half is the actually hardest part. It includes hauling his film, photos and videos around the U.S. (Fortunately, the rest of the world is years ahead of us on this one.) Showing this evidence to the disinterested, educating the ignorant, getting us selfish slobs to turn off the TV and pay attention. To do any of this, Balog has to swim upstream into the torrent of disinformation and propaganda that spews out of the fossil fuels industry, and out of their purchased politicians and pundits.

Doesn't that sound like a pleasant way to spend a good chunk of one's working years? No?  Then how about "valuable?" Remember, success can be so much more than NPPA awards, website stats, or National Geographic covers. Balog was once a young, amateur photographer - just like many of us.  If he can use his camera to nudge the world in different direction, why can't you?  Or me.  And that's what stabs.  I could have been so much more... useful.



"Chasing Ice" website
Extreme Ice Survey website
Democracy Now interview
ABC News coverage
Review of "Chasing Ice"

Timely Use of Photoshop

I really like the use of Photoshop in this ad. It isn't subtle, but then neither are the statistics that the image describes. The artist used patriotic symbolism against gun enthusiasts who often defend their gun obsession with said symbolism. This photo illustration tells that story well.

Good reads on the subjects of gun control and cultural violence can be found here and here.