Little House on the Ice Long Pond

Todays picture is: another ice shack! Yay!

Here's the way I see it- a while back I figured to make a work on ice shacks- because they almost all have an unique character, and almost always are in beautiful places. And the fog spoke to me, therefore: when the fog speaks- you listen! And in the meantime it gives me direction and something to think about regarding planning a shoot, or I could even go so far as to make like it's a project for a client and take the faux initiative that way- "gotta get the work done and all!" But honestly I've been really enjoying it, where before I would see them [the ice shacks], and appreciate them strictly out of a "that's a cool looking one" stand point. -Now I'm looking at everyone I see and considering lines and angles and backgrounds and weather and times of day and what not, which is just good practice, period. What I mean by that is we get used to seeing things as the things that they are and take them for granted but when we have to look at the things that we are seeing critically then we see them anew like for the first time all over again. Look- I don't mean to get all preachy here: I'd rather listen to a good sermon then give one, so forgive me if I sometimes get all enchanted by a thing, but with photography you can explore and study the things that fascinate you, a real double-whammy bonus in that way! Always curious, sometimes a satisfied photographer, that's me.

Now dig this: here's some nifty bonus materials that I found on the interwebs yesterday- whether or not you like 'The Fro', he does a pretty good job of showing you how it was, or used to be in this video of shooting instamatic film and getting it developed and made this wicked cool vid showing that whole ridiculous process. I used to shoot film on a Kodak instamatic 110 before my voice cracked and I was still sporting tube socks and short shorts, check this style out:

We used to really pull those socks up- for support you know. -1982, with the greatest cat: "Patches" 

I recently found some of the old pictures taken with that 110 and I'll put them up here some other time- but I wonder what I was thinking back then clicking the shutter? Can't quite remember- I remember taking pictures of my dog and the old pictures that recently found that were made with that camera had some suburban landscapes and pictures of some rocks and chipmunks and stuff. Can't even imagine having to rely on that technology now though. So anyways check this viddy out and start it at about 09:30 if you want to skip the rest of the basketball game stuff (worst basketballing and worst pictures I've seen since the 80's that's for sure!), but interesting the rest- 

Ha! One of things he points out is that one of the scary moments is when the negatives pop out of the machine and you look for (1.) exposure: to see if there is even a picture there, and (2.) focus- look through a loupe to see if what there to see is being seen. And seriously, has anything changed?! That's the same thing I'm doing now when I bring the files into Lightroom, getting all psyched to see the thumbnbail, looking promising, but then seeing that I missed focus by just a little bit here or there- eesh! And that's why they call it photography instead of taking pictures- (rolling off the analogy 'fishing instead of catching') it's really a big deal to make all of the elements come together perfectly to make a great image, and it takes a bit of alchemy-to make sure that you're doing everything right on the spot, at the time. That's where practice and knowledge come in, and when all else fails: muscle memory and reactionary instinct may save the day. Then again there's always the fall back tried and true method of 'spray and pray'- whatever works: keep making those great pictures mis amigos, my friends! Because the lord of the pixels knows that I'm tested everytime out there! 

-Right then, and, as usual, have a good one- Nate!