Organic Light Pan

Sunset on a Quiet Day

I have always been amazed when I awoke on Christmas day to find it to be peaceful and quiet.  Today was no different.  Everyone and everything just stops on this day and because of that, its is intensely quiet.  For that reason, I like this day.

Today also happened to occur on a new moon.  As I do every month I go out to find the new crescent moon and to record it, as it used to be on film, but now with pixels.  As quiet as it is on any other day, today it was even more so.  As I stood out there on top of the Santa Cruz Mountains in the silence I felt like I was very far away from the things of man.

I waited a while before the moon made itself visible as it emerged from behind the clouds.  It was a fine moon, crisp and clean in the sky.  As I worked photographing it my cell phone broke the silence.  I was called for a sighting report about the new moon.  I replied “I am looking at right now as we speak”.  I was asked “who else is with you?”, and my reply “I am alone”.  “You know two people are needed for a valid report”.  “Yes I know” was my reply and the call ended.

Safar 1, 1433

I suddenly thought, one person or two, the moon is still new.  I laughed, finished up and drove home alone in the revelry of beautiful silence.  I started this 20 year odyssey of looking for the new moon when no one else would, and now I still go out alone most months, only now with a reputation of the Moon-Sighter following me.  And whether I see it or not, the moon waits for no one or two.

Enjoy the coming winter.  Peace.

“We protect what we fall in love with” – Louie Schwartzberg

I am so happy that I am not the only person who espouses that sentiment.

See his TED presentation HERE

Peace.

Photographing the 4th Dimension - TiME

Photography is a difficult medium to work in. In the real world as we experience it we are immersed in a multidimensional state – 3 dimensions of space, the dimension of time being the 4th, but then add to this the 5th dimension of sound, then the 6th dimension of scents, and the 7th dimension of touch and the 8th dimension of light itself. The difficulty involved is trying to pack the experience of all these dimensions into just two – the width and height of a piece of paper or a computer monitor.

In some instances by using composition and light properly, the photographer can convey a sense of three-dimensionality in a two dimensional photo. When this is accomplished, the photograph is deemed a great success. In fact anytime a photo can represent more than the two dimensions it is displayed on it would be a successful photo.

‘Photographing The 4th Dimension: TIME’ is a new ebook written and published by professional photographer Jim Goldstein that provides the framework and procedural steps needed to produce photographs that extend them into the 4th-dimension of Time.

When I teach classes and workshops I ask my students what they think time is. I get some of the strangest answers and in most cases very perplexed looks. Time is the interval between the start and stop of some action. If an action was very long, then that would indicate much time had passed and if the action was very short, then very little time passed.

Trying to capture the sense of action, of time passing, in a still photograph is a difficult proposition. But Jim Goldstein deftly provides the necessary foundation for doing just that. His ebook begins with the basics needed for any good photography – exposure. From there Jim dives into several topics from capturing motion to star trails to time lapse photography. Each section discusses the techniques and equipment needed as well as giving a set of step by step instructions. The ebook also comes with a foldable field guide that photographers can print out and carry with them in the field.

‘Photographing the 4th Dimension – Time’ is a great introduction into expanding still photography into the realm of and showing the progression of Time.  Jim Goldstein has done a wonderful job of concisely giving instructions and examples that will introduce photographers to this exciting field. If you have been looking for information on how to do time lapse photography or star trails or any of the other topics covered in the book, like I was, then this is the book to get, read, and use.

Peace.