Recent books

I go in spurts for reading. There's been a bit of one lately, which is a bit odd considering how nice it's been lately. Then again, I'm thinking I need some down time after the trip to Newfoundland. Yes, I know, it's been almost two months. 

I'm expecting a busy fall with the dark room courses, and a busy community association schedule, so maybe resting up a bit is a good thing.

On to the books.

The Sartorialist by Scot Schuman. Like so much else, I missed out on this when it was happening. That's me, always behind the times. Supposedly he started out with a blog, then descended to Instagram. I stopped looking at Instagram some time ago, so I'm not going to link to it. Somewhere along the line he put out some books, including these. They aren't big like most photo books, being 5 x 7.5" or so, but they're really thick. All the photos are at least competent, and some are really nice.

Keep in mind as I say this, that I have zero sense of personal style. Most days I wear ugly cargo pants and a T shirt. Then again, I'm retired and don't have to impress anyone. I've long since learned there's nothing as invisible as an older man. But there's no way I'd wear, out in public for people to see, some of the outfits these people are wearing.

The Americans by Robert Frank. This made quite a splash at the time, but I don't get it.

Are We There Yet by Peter Matthiessen. Ramblings about Zen and lineage. OK photos.

Humans by Brandon Stanton. Many nice photos, but most of the stories are sad. Eventually I stopped reading them, and just looked at the photos.

Read this if you want to take great photographs by Henry Carroll. A great book for beginners. A more accurate title would be changing great to good.

The Photography Exercise Book by Bert Krages. This is kind of an odd book in several ways. I suspect it was originally written before digital was really a thing, and poorly updated. The writing is kind of wooden, almost like a chat-bot. The so-called exercises are poorly thought out. Glad I didn't buy it.

 

The Art and Soul of Dune by Tanya Lapointe. A behind the scenes look at some of the conceptual art that went into making Dune. My relationship with Dune is pretty much meh. Sure I read the first book back in the day. I've no memory of reading the second one, and remember bits of the third. It all sort of fell off a cliff for me about then. The 1984 movie version was no worse than a lot of other 80's era movies. I had high hopes for the Denis Villeneuve version, and wasn't disappointed. However I haven't got around to watching part 2. I'd probably pick it up if I saw it in the library. I really liked Arrival, and I think I need to see Blade Runner 2049 again.  

Forever Wandering by Emilie Ristevski. This is a lovely, mostly travel photography book, but there's also some abstract images, some self-portraiture that is ever so much more than the hideous selfie look so often shown on instagram. I'd be really pleased if I could be taking photos this good.

Sci-fi Chronicles by Guy Haley. Being old school, I would pronounce that as "skiffy" but I get that the modern generations are infected with TLDR, and anything much over a paragraph qualifies. I digress. This is a fabulous reference book! It's a great way to dive into a series or book you like, and branch out into it's roots, versions in other media, and other related works.

Ross Penhall's Vancouver. I picked it up, thinking it might be interesting to see paintings of a place I'm a bit familiar with. He has a distinctive way of doing things that isn't quite my taste, but not far off. Some of the paintings are interesting photographic ideas. I'm pretty sure seeing the paintings in real life would be a much different experience. We've all seen Mona Lisa in print, and some may have been fortunate enough to see the real thing. I've seen a good copy by one of his students, and I was struck by the luminosity of the painting, which totally does not come across in books.

Storyteller The Art of Henry Vickers by Roy Henry Vickers. His artwork is his way of telling stories about his heritage. The prints are beautiful, but there's a sense of commercialism that is a bit off putting to me. 

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NL)

Film

A nice beach at the end of a 3K boardwalk, near Port Saunders. We had a nice glass of wine and enjoyed the sunset. There aren't a lot of sandy beaches in Newfoundland. There's a bit of a 70's vibe to the colour palette of this roll. I'm not sure if that's from the lab, or something I did with the white balance during the NLP processing.

Linda

I had this view of her. Often. This is on the road to the tip of Burnt Cape. I use the word road with a certain degree of scorn. ATV trail is a much better word for most of it.

Newfoundland

This boulder amuses me.