The Quiet Picture

Not sure if I’ve mentioned that I have pictures at a stock agency. I’ve mentioned it on the front page of my homepage but here in the blog I’ve kept quiet about it… mostly because there’s nothing to say. I average about one sale per year, it’s a numbers game and I only have a few hundred pictures at the agency. I’d need a few thousand to get any income out of it! The funny thing about the stock pictures is that they accept pictures that I wouldn’t have thought were up to scratch, while they reject pictures which are my favourites. So what makes a good stock picture? I still don’t know, so I send them a wild assortment and let them figure out what works and what doesn’t.

So these few pictures that have been sold through the agency, I never find out how they have been used. The information I get is only which picture it was, who bought it, and for what purpose. For example, the latest picture sold through the agency was bought by Nordstedts and it was used for an advertisement. It could be published anywhere, I would never find out. It’s a winter landscape picture from the mountains, lonely ski tracks heading towards the tundra. Nothing special in my eyes so I had completely forgotten that I had ever taken such a picture.

Yesterday at the library I noticed that they had a freebie magazine out for grabs. “Fjällsäker” (Safety in the mountains) is an annual publication intended for tourists to educate them on how to dress warmly, watch out for the changes in the weather, avoid avalanche prone areas etc. Since I read everything about the mountains I can get my hands on, of course I grabbed a copy of this. Page 17 is dedicated for maps, and in the lower right corner there’s an ad for Fjällkartan (mountain map). Click here for the PDF, and go to page 17. I thought the picture looked very familiar. Hmm.. a winter landscape from the mountains with ski tracks… it’s an ad from Norstedts… could it… yes it is! That’s my picture!!

Talk about a coincidence! I have most of the mountain maps on my shelf (two copies of some of them), so having one of my pictures used for advertising Fjällkartan makes me very proud!

And what’s more of a coincidence is that this happens hot on the heels of the book. At the rate of which I normally have my work published, I’ve already exceeded my annual average and it’s only January. I don’t need a crystal ball to predict that I can now look forward to 11 very lean months… So don’t worry, the gloating will stop here!

It’s been quiet about my cabin project but now it’s coming along again. The permits got delayed, then the cabin frame got delayed, then the big freeze set in and they couldn’t do the groundwork. No big issue for me, I’m not in a hurry.

But now the groundwork is almost done. I went there on Saturday to take a look (because some things I don’t believe until I see them!) and was delighted and scared at the same time. Delighted to see that instead of creating a small parking place close the road, they had created a driveway all the way to the cabin (which probably was out of necessity to be able to access the cabin site by big machinery in the first place). Scared because the cabin suddenly became very much a reality. Not sure if that makes sense… but this whole project is so much bigger than I ever imagined. It is costing me more money than I ever imagined. To be honest, it’s sometimes frightening the living daylights out of me. Had I known what this would be like… never in a million years would I have gotten myself into it.

But, the process is irreversible now. For good or for evil, that cabin is going to be there and I have to pay for it.

And then I did that little snowshoe walk in the winter mountain scenery. And I loved it. I love the mountains. I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a sense of belonging somewhere since I moved from Finland. I belong to the mountains.

And then the cabin didn’t feel like such a burden anymore. Cost it what it may, but it will be my homebase in a place where I want to be more than anywhere else in the world.

Does that make any sense?

Last spring I was asked if I could take some pictures for a local book project. I was a bit hesitant because the motif wasn’t my normal stuff and experience has taught me that I don’t do well “on commission” – I’m only at ease when my inspiration to photograph comes from inside me. But, I’m also not very good at saying no so there I was at the Fågelsjö Gammelgård, shooting interiors and trying not to break any of the fragile old handicraft pieces from the 19th century while setting them up for close-ups.

The book is based on the diary entries of a local farmer. He lived on the estate that is now the Fågelsjö Gammelgård old farm museum, so his life is preserved not only in the words he wrote but also in the buildings, interior decorations and assorted household items. He was a skilful craftsman and it’s fascinating to see all the things he had manufactured himself, it seems like he was even a bit of an inventor because some of the artefacts were very creative.

The book was supposed to come out already last summer, I was asked well ahead in time but then the time ran out and suddenly they were in a hurry and I had to jump in with a short notice. And then as it happens so often, life intervened and the project got delayed anyway, but now the book is finally out and it looks great! Much better than I expected, and I mean the book as a whole. But the strange thing is… all of my pictures in the book look better than I expected as well. I’ve often heard photographers say that pictures look better in print than on screen, and I think that this book proves it. For all the hesitation at first, I’m really happy I did the job because now I have my work published in a book I can be proud of!

The book is called Min hand är icke begåfvad att föra en skikliger penna – Fågelsjöbonden Jonas Olssons dagbok 1851-1892 and it’s edited by Eva Heggestad (ISBN 978-91-633-6003-9, published by Fågelsjö Hembygdsförening). It will be available in the Ljusdal bookstore and I’m sure that it will be prominently displayed at the Fågelsjö Gammelgård museum in the summer.

Musings on photo editing, part 2

Part 1

My question is, is a photograph a representation of reality, or is it the photographer’s interpretation of what they think reality should be?

When the picture is edited to no longer reflect the reality, I’m not sure if I want to call them photographs anymore… seems like they’ve gone beyond a photograph, in the traditional sense of the word (read: analogue). The dictionary definition of the word “photograph” is pretty all-encompassing though, because the word means “drawing with light”. Photography is a form of art, so a photo must be a work of art, and a heavily edited photo is… not a photo? But a work of art in any case. And such, neither wrong or right. And whatever I personally feel about photo manipulation, I am not going to condemn anyone else for doing it. To each their own! My only problem is when somebody presents a photo to me as a reflection of reality, when in fact the photo is edited to longer represent reality.

The beauty, as always, is in the eye of the beholder. If you’re ready to accept a heavily manipulated picture as a photograph, then that’s what is – even if it ends up on Photoshop Disasters. But as all the pictures on the PS Disasters blog witness, a photograph does tell a big fat lie sometimes. The laws of physics are bent and the human anatomy likewise.

Maybe the issue is really about linguistics. Could we have a word for a non-edited image (where no physical elements are changed) and another word for a “photoshopped” image? Both are photographs at the moment, whether you call it an image or a picture it’s all just semantics. But I’m talking about the difference in content!

So this brings me back to the new tools in CS5, which is actually what gave me the spark for these musings in the first place. While the content-aware fill tool is very cool indeed, you can hardly call the result a representation of reality. The ease and extent of removing elements in the photo is almost scary. Don’t like the factory in the background? No probs, remove it. That’s looking at the world through a pink filter: everything you find wrong with it will be fixed.

My challenge lies in finding that rose-tinted reality in the world around me so I can portray it with my camera. The challenge is not about changing the reality to fit my ideal of it.

Same difference I guess.

Musings on photo editing, part 1

Remember when they used to say that a photo never lies?

Well, they may have been a bit too blue-eyed even in the old days of analogue. There was a lot more going in the darkroom than simple film development. But by and large, a photo didn’t lie. Those darkroom wizards aside, the majority of photographers (pros and home snappers alike) settled with reality as it was, warts and all.

Then came computers. Then came digital cameras. And now, Adobe is prepping Photoshop CS5 with some really cool new tools that takes manipulation to whole new heights and it’s not like the photo editing tools have been bad so far either.

Regular readers of this blog (yes, I mean both of you) know that I have a very conservative stance on a photo manipulation. I just simply prefer to make my images in the camera, that’s all – it’s a personal challenge, but it’s not an absolute and I’m prepared to venture out if the occasion calls. Dust spec removal, levels adjustment, saturation etc have always been part of my toolbox and I don’t consider those any more manipulation than choosing the composion, aperture and shutter speed in the camera. Manipulation to me is when you start adding or removing things in the picture – physical things like buildings, radio masts, trees etc.

It seems like I’m getting a bit more relaxed about my attitude towards editing (manipulating) my pictures, so I guess it’s just a matter of giving it time. I try to keep Lightroom as my one-stop shop for photo processing and the clone/heal heal tool has its restrictions. In any case, I’m gradually doing more retouching in my pictures, beyond Lightroom. Nothing drastic, but removing occasional stray branches or grass blades is not the moral dilemma it used to be. White lies… bending the truth a little bit?

* * *

An un-edited version of the above picture is here. And yes, it’s a zoo animal, another thing that requires disclosure. Just take a look at what happened with the winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year. A stunning picture whether it’s a tame wolf or not, but if it is tame… then I would sure like to know it. The end result doesn’t count if you’re not honest about it!

You haven’t seen this before and you won’t see it again anytime soon (ever, I hope)… a picture of me, in my blog! I wanted to try the spooky effect with long shutter speeds where you move in the frame and only leave this ghostly semi-transparent impression. Not very easy to find the right combination of shutter speed, movement and stillness, it definitely belongs to the category “things I’d never try with film”! The composition wasn’t easy either because I needed to avoid having any trees behind me or the head would disappear in the dark branches. After a few trial and error, I got it.

It’s obviously not a very good picture but the fun was in doing. I’m not sure about the blueness, the colour is true because I was out after sunset but I’m nearly obsessed about having my snow white. Maybe I should try this at noon with a dark ND filter instead… or maybe not, it’s a nice way to kill some time on a lazy afternoon but the model is very un-co-operative!

My cold is still keeping me at home, I’m not too sick not to work but I’m not well enough to travel to work and sit around other people all day either. So I’m working from home; nice to have that option. This morning when I woke up, the landscape had transformed – it looks like winter now! And no, I didn’t go walkabout to photograph anything, if I’m too sick to go to work then I’m too sick to go photograph, fair is fair. The picture is the scene I see from my living room window! At the moment it’s already raining, so the snow won’t last much longer. But it was a 13 cm layer this morning, a promise of things to come…

But oh how I need some fresh air, the outside looks so inviting even with the melting snow and fog. I’ve been cooped up in the flat since Tuesday, I’m going crazy!

I learned something else about photographing from a blind: dress warmly. I froze my butt off on Saturday and apparently wasn’t warm enough on Sunday either because I now have a cold. Let’s hope it’s not the swine variety and that I will get off as easy as I normally do.

The worst part about being sick, for me, is that it takes weeks before I’m completely restored, even when I only have a very mild cold. Oh well. I stocked up on bird food yesterday so as long as I’m well enough to re-fill the feeders, I will hopefully have some birds left when I’m ready to use the blind again!

Photography is a great way to reset your thoughts.

When I set out for a walk, I had a lot of negative thoughts in my head. The problem is with my neighbour/landlord who is apparently not able to grasp the concept of “yours and mine”. Meaning that when I pay my rent, I pay for more than just my flat – I pay for the garage and I pay for the piece of lawn between my flat and the garage. Which means that while I’m not the owner of the space, I have the right to use it – except now it’s him using it. His trailer has been almost permanently parked behind my garage since the summer, and when I half jokingly asked him if he’d like to rent the space from me, he said that he didn’t have room for it on his side (true – he’s got too much junk for the little space he has) and he’d remove it. But not only did he not remove it, but yesterday when I drove my car in the garage (I’ve been keeping it outside) I found that he had mounted a shelf and stored some planks on it. In my garage!!!! Without as much as a word to ask if he could do it, can you believe it?

So anyway, I was saying that photography is good. I tried to force myself to think happy thoughts as I was walking, but I always kept coming back to the same thing. Then I finally reached my destination, a small brook that I found last week. What a relief it was to set up the tripod and start composing the pictures, because every last little brain cell of mine was concentrated on photography. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts – quite naturally!

And then I was done with the pictures and started walking back home, and I was mad again. I’m paying too much rent and considering that I’m getting even less for my money than I should, the rent is intolerable. It’s a bad timing to move now because I really should save my money for the cabin, but my option is be angry every day when I see the trailer. I see it when I go to work, I see it when I come home, I see it from my kitchen window, I see it from my living room window, I can see it just by turning my head as I’m typing this now. And the shelf in the garage, I can’t believe he had the nerve. I can feel my blood pressure rising.

Too bad I can’t photograph 24/7.

I just remembered that last spring I posted my plan for the summer. So time to check the list and see how I did.

• Motorbike. Well, we all (the regular blog readers, anyway) know what happened with that. Crash boom bang. Add some bad weather and it’s a recipe for leaving the Tricker in the garage. On top of everything else, the motorbike turned out to be a bad photographer’s buddy. It’s just simply not practical to haul the gear on the bike and even if I did, I’d still have a problem with all the protective clothing because it’s not suited for photography, so I’d need a change of clothes as well. I proved myself that I’m not afraid of the motorbike after my accident so I’m not giving up because of it, and thus, the Tricker is now officially for sale!
• Mountains. Yes, been there, seen it, done that. Found a lot of nice new places but I guess the biggest mountain-related thing of the summer is that I bought a piece of land there. So there’ll be more mountains in the future, for sure.
• Waterfalls. Yes, found plenty of those, some of them were positive surprises and others were disappointments. I didn’t get a chance to do my “waterfall day” which would’ve taken me to four different waterfalls I hadn’t seen yet, but I did get to see one of those four and it fell way short from my expectations. So if I do the waterfall day next year, I’ll have a more manageable three falls left to see.

Although I implied that I wouldn’t put as much energy into searching orchids as I did last year, this turned out to be an orchid intensive summer anyway. I’m still basking in the glory of finding the alpine chamorchis, at long last!

A little bit surprisingly, I don’t have any plans for next summer. I don’t even have plans for the winter. Or next weekend, come to think of it. The long term plans depend very much on what I get done with the cabin – if I get it built next summer, then naturally all my spare time will be spent on that. Now that’s something to look forward to!