New Project

I've started work on a new project. Actually, I started some time ago, but didn't realize it. I've been taking photos on or alongside the new autopista from Tuxtla to San Cristobal for a while now, but just recently have come up with a focus and theme.

Originally I was shooting sunsets from the autopista. It runs along a ridge and has a great overview of the valley and a view towards the west. But then I started to look around at the landscape there and how it had changed. I've been thinking a lot about my landscape photography and have been straying farther and farther from the "pretty picture" type of landscape photograhy for some time now. Over at The Landscapist there's been a lot of talk about this very subject and how it all relates to what kind of photographer you are; modernists (think Ansel Adams) or post-modernist (think William Eggleston). Mark at The Landscapist concludes that he straddles the line between the two (he's a post-modernist, sort of) and I guess that's where I am too.

All of which is a long introduction to the new project. It's the most post-modern stuff I've done. Basically it's pictures of man-altered landscapes, so it's pretty mundane scenes (post-modern) which I've shot in large panoramas which I feel tends to give them a grander look (modernist). In other words I'm trying to give an Adamsesque treatment to an Egglestonian subject. Does that make any sense? It does to me. (btw, the photo above is stitched together from 9 photos (3 x 3)). Not a panorama, but pretty impressive when printed full size.

Over on Alec Soth's blog he had a post about titles for projects. Now I still probably put more time into thinking about sex than I do about titles, but I have thought a lot about a title for this project. I made a list of words that described what this project was about and then started brainstorming titles using words from the list. I'm leaning towards "The Hand of Man". I've seen and heard more traditional modernist landscapes described as showing "The Hand of God" and thought that "The Hand of Man" describes what it is I'm seeing.

Time

I've been following a lot of blogs about photography. Some are mostly photos, some are photos and text about photography. That's what this blog intends to be, but as you can see from the date of the last posting I'm not posting regularly. I just don't know where people find the time! Between day job, taking photographs, processing photographs and family obligations I can't seem to keep up.

Oh well, enough whining. I'm going to try to post more regularly.

Suchiapa Tune Up

My compadre brought 45 dancers from Suchiapa to San Cristobal's Easter parade and then to our house. It was a perfect oportunity to practice shootimng them before I go down for the feast in June. The people in the town are expecting a book about their fiesta, and I'd like to be able to give them one.

I shot a lot of frames at slow speeds, hoping to get a motion blur with the faces in focus. They looked great on the tiny screen on my Nikon (yes, I was chimping) but most of them were too blurred to use. The dancers toss their heads a lot while they dance. It looks great; the ribbons bounce all over the place. But this means that my slow shutter speeds were producing images that were completely blurred. Better to know now. I'll have to do some experimenting with shutter speeds and maybe flash to see what settings I can use down there.