No Life Guard on Duty

By now every aware photographer knows,has heard of or has tried the Lens Baby. Why not, it is great way to become an Impressionist overnight.

Like from a previous post, new tools lead to new visions and in some cases from there another series emerges. My original vision is an ongoing series, "Dreamstates" ...Impressions at sunrise through dream filled eyes..
or as it is sometimes referred to as "..Love it..do you have that one in focus? "

So first, for those who "love it" and are ready to ask if I have do it in focus, know that the reason you are attracted to it, might be the look that goes with the image. Both go hand in hand, like Casals and a Cello, to make the music you are hearing. Oddly I do that question anyway.

Any other photographers experience this? If not, then I truly am alone which is why I am here! Anyway C'est la vie MF. and on to


where I was really going with this..

a new brush, the Lens Baby and my ongoing series.


South Beach,FL. just has it for this lens IMHO, the pastel colors and surroundings at certain times of the day seem to just paint themselves, and really turn me on...well not THAT way, but of course this alone thing might contribute to that. But another thing that happened while shooting this series is not just a new vision from a new brush but a new viewpoint emerging from it.

" No Life Guard on Duty"

Ralph Gibson talked about the point of departure.To sum up; a necessary place from where you start but may not be where you wind up, but without it,you would never come to where you are. Recognizing this, you use it by going with the flow and what happens from there might just be something that is intuitively deep with you,based on your experiences,tastes,outlook,feelings etc. For some, inspiration, for others, the sum total of your soul reaching out to express something inside by recognizing something that is outside. "Out of focus?" ........are we all alone...or is there No Life Guard on Duty?

What does Fall and Thanksgiving have in Common?...

CRANBERRIES!

I always thought that cranberries grew in water,bogs,something to be avoided during a full moon. Guess what...they don't, in fact they grow along the ground on vines,tight little berries that come in all shades,from pale red to purple.


Prior to this century they were harvested by hand, with a scoop which had 26 seven inch teeth sticking out from a wooden handle, sliding into the vine like a rake, plucking up the berries and often the vine with it. It was long backbreaking process and to get a real idea read http:www.unmassed.edu/specialprograms/caboverde/cranberry/semedo3.html a wonderful history or it all.

Ah...the mechanical era came along. and so did production. Enter "Wet Picking."

The vines growing in the marsh or bogs now could be flooded

and a motorized picker ,"Water Reel" or egg beaters could now be used to beat them off the vine and beautiful ruby jewel like marbles could float to the top...a man stands in front to guide and mark the place they left off and also feel for any deep holes( something you don't want to fall into with waders!) and they go round and round until all done. Oh yeah..how do they float to the top? They have small air pocket in the middle where the seeds are,







Then they are corralled together ready to











be sucked up into a waiting truck..that rinses and loads them ready to be delivered to the plant.

Each truck is weighed and product tested..


Before unloading, samples are randomly sampled for any pesticides or other contaminates..
then unloaded by dirving up on a ramp that tilts the truck back to dump out the berries onto belt system sorting for sizes and later determined for usage eg. juice,frozen,packaged etc.


So the next time you slide out that familiar red log of cranberry jelly for holiday turkey or chicken, ( mmm duck as well) or any other kind of cranberry sauce item you might have in mind, think of the process it took to take it from here to your table. To me they will never look the same.


For more images.. http://www.matthewpace.com/cranberryslideshow

Everything Old is New Again...

Deafened by the whirl of digital advancements happening so fast that all my time went to upgrading both my equipment and brain with programs and drives, that I almost forgot what photography was all about.... from a top shelf and from inside I heard its voice..a 1932 Agfa box camera called out..("got $20.00 bucks? buy me)..no programs included. So I did.

I took it along a trip to France, the Loire Valley and yes of course I did back myself up with the big guns as well. The Box, takes 120 roll film, remember that? Some form of exercise in patience and the anticipation of seeing images a while after you forgot them only to rediscover the thrill and agony of why did take that. Even at times seeing something you didn't think it would work only to discover a whole new movement in your work and vision.

It gets 8 shots, 6x9 if you can line up the roll correctly at the start. Exposure is simple, press here. I used Tmax 400 most of time and sometimes Tmax100. The small viewer on top and on the side for horizontals darkened by age, appear larger by wearing magnifying glasses on top of my RayBans, a comical sight helping to label me a tourist even further than the photo vest holding my film and back up camera/lenses which I hardly pulled out due to the relaxed fun I was having with the Box. In fact, it made me take pictures once again, not figure out programs.

The image here, shot in the rain, is Chenonceau."The Ladies Castle" something you might not see on This Old House. The soft tones around the edges are the character of this camera, not sure if it is age or if it was the state of the art in its time, but to me,perfect for this look. The exposure,aperture,lens choice...well,who cares,can't do anything about it anyway, just snap away and hope to correct it later in Photoshop, which brings us to the present.

Back at base, scanning these allowed for corrections and at times they were needed other than the usual dust. Toning, burning , dodging, (sound familiar? ) with some negs. was in need but a small price to pay to fall back in love with things again.

Now don't get me wrong, I am fully equipped and knowledgeable with all of today's things and I do use them in my commercial life, but I would love to find a place for the Box, apart from my art life and apply it. Sometimes the further we go in one direction, the more around we come in another,

In a way the old has married the new and a new series begins.

More to come soon...

Yet Another

 To add to my previous post yet another image of this popular subject...the "Z Tree"  by Dennie Cody. Taken at a different time of the year, the wet season in the Everglades, his view shows it in full splendor within its now green surroundings. 

The beauty of art is the endless ways each artist sees it. Everyday objects are not as everyday as we think. They do change continuously , if not physically. then from our point of perspective.

   

 

6 eyes,1 tree,3 points of view

                   

We are three friends. We are also three photographers who at times compete for the same clients.We have three ways of seeing things.

On the left is Paul Morris, the middle is me, the right is Robert Klemm

You often hear " That's been done before. "  It is the chant and motto of the discouragement fraternity whose numbers,especially in this field, grow by the day. To the young, thank God,it falls on deaf ears. To others it resoundslike an echo in a canyon and if we pay too much attention to it, numbs us to the point of internal stagnation. 

Here we three were in the Florida Everglades at a very familiar spot for locals who tread there, the "Z Tree," a bald cypress who took a strange turn due to a force in nature. Many have stopped there and I have a host of images of this tree. 

Paul chose to work with his pinhole camera and Polaroid 55N film. From his view, the tree becomes part of the heavens reaching up connecting earth and sky. It was a brilliant day and through his lens, this tree celebrates it.

Robert, chose to work with a Deardorff   view camera scaled for 4X5 B&W film. His graphic silhouette of the tree quickly brings out the name it bears and accentuates a sense of power that gives reason to why it has endured whatever mishap fell on it. In a way it speaks for the power of nature with its resiliency of survival.

I chose to work with a Canon 5D  and a LensBaby. For me the tree was the main subject in a painting of an environment that exists no where else on earth. It's warm colors muted by the len's effect and its focus directed to the subject at hand was my interest. 

We could have had 50 photographers on that site that day and probably would have 50 different images produced with no two alike. Besides the beauty of the images, there are lessons here to be had. For me the lesson learned is about individuality and how, like the tree, one stands unique, despite it all. A different vision is in each one of us but it's often blinded by the myriad of negatives that place blinders on it. Like snowflakes, no two will ever be exactly the same and that shouldn't stop us from doing and re-doing things, with our own expression.

" That's been done before "......maybe, but not this way. 

matthew pace

Who Knew Then,Treat it Serious Now

That's my dad, Raphael and his partner Leroy. That's a Tommy gun on the right. That's a riot gun on the left. That's the third largest diamond ever found in the raw, handcuffed to my dad. 

Found in South Africa when a woman tilling her field sat on it by accident, later sold to Harry Winston, it was shipped via the United States Postal System. The Two in the picture, a team of Postal Inspectors had the honor of receiving it and transporting it to Harry Winston in NYC. Harry took advantage of the best and lowest price escort by insuring it via the US Mail, but that's not what this story is about. 

It is about the importance of archiving photography, for a future we can't see now and not judging what has or doesn't have value. 

On route to Harry. they stopped to check in at their office and another inspector there asked them to stop and pose for a quickie Polaroid. A fast snap taken to show the folks back home, me included who at the time was a young photographer with my bathroom darkroom setup and my new MamyiaRB67 . It was another assignment in my dad's work but one that needed some extra copies to send to the rest of the family. The original must have been 3x4 apprx. and he asked if I could make a copy. I did and a few negatives at that. I stored them in an archival glassine, gave one to them and filed the others.

35 years later, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC wanted to dedicate a section to the Postal System and its great Postal Inspection Department. Also known as a secret service that took no credit for the myriad of cases both local and international, it gave away the accolades to the other departments that enforce the law. Its history is rich and its reputation among the inside law enforcers and breakers was outstanding. They were the final word...FEDERAL.

The Smithsonian searched for a definitive picture that would speak for the whole of who they are and after many thousands of edits stumbled on this one long gone faded Polaroid but from a print done from the copy neg, chose this. With today's better equipment. I scanned and cleaned negative and gave them a reproducible  file to turn into this card,calendar, and permanent display in the museum. 

Often we pass over many images that we deem as no real value. In our haste we discard or misplace the many images, particularly in today's digital world seeing them as non-important,a happy snap,something that we don't even consider. This one thirty some years ago could have been just that...a " hey guys, look aver here" and time would have moved on as this would have faded away. Luckily it didn't. It, while who knew then, now belongs and is part of history. 

From this point of view, we are more than jsut photographer, we are the in a way the gaurdians of history, no matter how big or small the events we record. To that end, our responsibility to the future is our approach to the present and what we do as photographers, happy snaps or major works takes on a different meaning.         

Hopping truths in the News..?

Here's a funny story that happened some years ago when I first started to shoot food.

I was called on by an editor of some popular "rag sheets" that you find at the checkout counters in the supermarkets. They wanted to do a story about frog legs and asked if I had any in stock. I didn't but living here in South Florida at that time provided no problem .

A local fish market had a supplier who hunted frogs in the Everglades, big ones too and that afternoon I got some of the best. I prepared them myself, some I had to eat of course...and photographed them as well. Sending up the film..(ah the good old film days when I wasn't in front of the computer all day for every thing I now do, when I dropped off my film,had lunch with others while we waited the 3 hours or so,had food,beer/wine and talked about everything, about being and having a HUMAN touch ).. excuse me I digress... anyway, they selected this and a verticle shot as well to see how it would lay out.

I had asked about the story but they were vague, she was simply the photo editor doing her research etc... about a month  later I am in a local super market and I spot my shot very nicely reproduced with all appropriate bylines, and paid for of course, under the headline.. " Scientists have found why the French make such great lovers"  semi quoted here...why ,the story asks..because they eat Frogs legs and frogs have been found to feed on flies, the aphrodisiac ones that they pass on in their meat.Since the French are known to eat them...VOILA..cum eere ma cheri!!!  Now I may be French and on occasion eat a couple, I always thought it was my je ne sait qua ...  

Now a couple of months go by and I am at the photo show in NYC at Javits. I go to a local market and there in another newspaper I see the shot again, this time..." Man sues famous restaurant in France over a heart attack, when his diner of frogs legs gets up and dances in his plate." wow...Fred Astair and Kermit rolled into one... 

Both stories in separate papers used this image, created in my kitchen supplied from the Everglades. Now, I know about freedom of the press and artistic license but this was absolute parody or should have been. 

While it didn't make me hopping mad, it did make me laugh for a long time. If you have a similar story email to me to post it here...