Personal Blog

Month: August 2012

The story behind William Neill’s photo: “Dawn, Lake Louis” (1995)

I’m so glad William Neill reposted his amazing story behind his most iconic photo! It’s his favorite, and has inspired me!

It was so dark that William couldn’t see the vivid colors (the human eye using rods instead of the cones), so he didn’t know what he had captured until after the film was developed, before the digital age had begun!

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From:

My First Essay for Outdoor Photographer in 1997

August 16th, 2012

Today, I had a request from my long-time friend and master photographer Michael Frye to post the essay in which I tell the story of making my favorite image, Dawn, Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Canada 1995. Here it is as sent to Outdoor Photographer for first my On Landscape column in 1997.  For more of my essays, see the OP site here.

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Rising very early on a summer morning, I hoped for a dramatic and brilliant sunrise on Lake Louise and the glaciers above.  Perhaps it was the two weeks of photographing in rainy conditions that biased my hopes!  I waited patiently for sunrise, but my preconceived vision failed to appear as persistent clouds shrouded the mountains. It was a silent and mysterious dawn.  I simply sat and soaked in the scene.  Finally, I made two exposures, but expected little. I completely forgot about this session during the rest of my trip.  When I saw the film after returning, I was amazed. I had to think hard about when and where I had made this photograph. Unconsciously, but facilitated by my experience and instinct, the power and magic of that landscape, at that moment, had come through on film.

The Lake Louise photograph was made with my 4×5 view camera and a 150mm lens. Due to the use of slow film, small aperture and low light, the exposure was about two minutes long. Of the two exposures I made, one was horizontal, the other vertical. …

See the photo with the rest of the article HERE

My ADN comment about the body exhibit at the Alaska State Fair

I wrote this comment in our newspaper online, last night, in response to the hit piece on the human body exhibit at the Alaska State Fair, which I had just seen.

“I was AWESTRUCK by how wonderfully Jesus created our bodies. I was almost in tears at times, having never seen how intricate and complex our bodies really are. I also now understand better how my own muscles, ligaments and tendons work together. It was just amazing, and the glory should be fully given to God! Why would anyone want to rob this experience from anyone? The smell was oil based paint. I spoke with one of the painters who painted the pipes and the ceiling overhead. So you’ll make a retraction for your error on the smell, right, Juli[a]?”

She had claimed the smell was from the bodies. I don’t see a retraction. Our newspaper has a monopoly, and is owned by a huge media corporation, McClatchy. I don’t think they care much about fair play and the truth. They almost completely ignored Ron Paul, for example.

Also, it’s been awhile since I’ve commented, so I had to re-register. I tried to use my real name, but their software wouldn’t let me. Not sure why not, but my NOHATE license plate can be seen.

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From: Anchorage Daily News

Something’s off about fair’s body exhibit

Posted by adn_jomalley [Julia O’Malley]

Anchorage Daily News

Posted: August 29, 2012 – 7:21 pm

I wasn’t expecting to be queasy as I walked through the “Our Body: Live Healthy” exhibit of preserved human remains at the Alaska State Fair last week. I’m not squeamish, but the pelt of human skin was a little much. And the eyebrows left on the skinless faces. And the strange chemical smell. All of that might have been OK in another environment, say a museum or a lab. But there is just something off about touring a room full of dissected human bodies at a fair, between Ferris wheel rides and visits to the pork-chop-on-a-stick stand.

Promoters say Our Body is all about science and health. But as I went through the exhibit, which links obvious health messages like “smoking damages lungs” to displays of dissected cadavers injected with plastic polymers, I couldn’t shake the feeling that what was going on was more like a macabre spectacle, like a circus freak show. Were viewers learning something? Maybe. Very little of the health information came as a surprise to me. It functioned more as a way to justify morbid curiosity.

Entire Article with Comments Here

Photography: “To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.”

To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition,
in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.

– Henri Cartier-Bresson

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