Books of Interest

I have a couple of books which some of you might find interesting and am inviting you to take a look at them at our April 5th meeting.

This is not a photography book, but one about Wisconsin barns. Nevertheless, the photos are really excellent. The photographer is credited as a co-author (something that is all too uncommon in my opinion) and while there is nothing wrong with the text, it is the photography, and of course the topical interest that makes this book something special.

I have had this book for several years and think that it is a gem. All of the images are panoramas taken of the Mississippi River from St. Paul to St. Louis. These include several from Winona to Prairie du Chien. I would like to try to replicate some of them. Have a gander and see what you think.

Byron

Personal Note

I like the adage "never complain, never explain" (attributed to many including: Disraeli, Kathryn Hepburn, Henry Ford II, etc), but I don't often comply with this good guiding principle. I have been derelict in posting on this blog which is the primary site for communication among members of the WWIG. So... let me explain:

In October I purchased a new computer  in order to have 64bit capability for Photoshop and other imaging work. This, of course, entailed upgrading to Windows 7. Subsequently I upgraded the OS on my fairly old non-imaging desktop to Windows 7 (32bit) and finally decided to purchase a new laptop for several reasons, not the least of which was a battery charging malfunction which would have required an expensive repair. The new laptop came with Windows 7. Converting 3 machines from XP to Win7, dealing with a number of frequently used legacy programs that are not supported by Win7, some fairly substantial backup issues, and converting many activities to "cloud computing" has been a daunting task. Do I regret these decisions? Not at all. But, nonetheless, this process has at times been very frustrating and incredibly time consuming. I am not quite done, but as they used to say during the Viet Nam era, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'll be damned if it doesn't look bright!

If anyone attending the April 5th meeting has questions about any aspects of the long and torturous path to more or less up-to-date home computing that I've been through, please don't hesitate to ask.
Byron

WWIG April Meeting

The Western Wisconsin Imaging Group will meet at my home (N2207 Pammel Pass W. in Bridal Coulee) at 6:30pm on Monday April 5, 2010.

Here is the tentative program:

• Social period and review of prints between 6:30 and 7:00.
• 7:00 Mike Early will do a presentation on Bird Photography. It will be both a "how to" tutorial and presentation of some of his work. As many of you know, Mike is truly gifted nature photographer with a really remarkable knowledge of the wildlife ecology of our region. Those who have seen his bird photos will be excited to see his recent work and those who haven't will have a really special experience at this meeting.  
• After Mike's talk, we will review any prints that members bring. For this meeting I would like to dispense with the digitally projected images. I agree with Ron Reimer that the process has been cumbersome and can be made much smoother. I plan to use Picasa for receiving, organizing and projecting the images, but haven't had time to learn and master how to do so. So this time, prints only please. At the last meeting a theme was selected (by a drawing of suggestions). It was limestone. If you have limestone images, please print them for display and review.
• I will show a portion of a video that I think will be of considerable interest to the group. I concerns the work of Alfred Stieglitz and is much more that a biography. Rather it emphasizes his break with Pictorialism and his essential role in establishing the course of photography as a Fine Art for much of the 20th century. The video also covers a good deal of material dealing with the development of Modern Art, especially in America. The program is too long to show in one evening and about half will be covered at the April meeting. If there is sufficient interest I can show the rest at a subsequent meeting.

 Please do check this blog during the next week for more information and miscellaneous ramblings. Kudos to Jennifer for the photos she posted yesterday. I think that her image of the sailboats is exceptional. The repetition of the blue covers punctuated by the red one has seems like a visual representation of rhythmic music.  Blog contributions by members are sincerely appreciated.

Regards,
Byron

'Red' images

Hi Folks,

Finally getting around to posting my 'Red' images from the last meeting. I won't be able to make the April meeting, but I'm looking forward to seeing you all in May—Happy Spring!

Jennifer

Alternative to Zip Drives for Sharing Images at Meetings; Philosophy

We spend too much time at meetings with technology hang-ups over hardware and software incompatibilities. I propose that we set up a group photo sharing site, e.g., Google Docs or even Flickr, where we can all post any digital images we care to share with the group at meetings. Whoever administrates the group (Byron?) could set up the group so that anyone can submit images to their own personal folder, no one can download others' work, and the images could remain private until Byron opens the files at the meeting, after which time they are deleted from the site, unless it is desireable to archive them for future reference. Any other thoughts on this?

I was a little disappointed in the lack of consideration given to the prints at last night's meeting in comparison with the opportunity that author's of projected digital images had to talk about their work. I hate to see  the exhibition of prints glossed over, for I believe truly that photography does not exist without the print! Monitor presentations are intermediary forms of display for convenience, ease of group presentation and economy, but let's not relegate the fine print to extinction. There is something about feeling that an image is worth printing that suggests that the artist thinks highly enough about it to give it a physical and material presence (and future), instead of allowing it to exist only virtually in cyberspace. Digital images are becoming so ubiquitous, with the ease and frequency with which they are being generated, that they become common, fleeting, and potentially boring,  rather than special. Opinions?

Ron Reimer