JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 03.20.21
Happy Spring!
We made it through another winter here in New Jersey.
I’m happy we made it to Spring, but I hate March.
Yes, if we could go from February to mid-April, I’d be happy.
The earth is still cold here in March. It holds the coldness, and on those sunny days when it looks great to be outside, that cold nips you.
The earth is muddy and wet. And cold.
Despite a few days to 55 degree days, there’s still small piles of snow that can be found hiding the corner of a parking lot. It’s back with auto soot, but it’s still there.
Those piles of packed snow, still holding onto their cold, are like beast that won’t die.
The trees are still still brown and warped from the wind
There’s not much green out there right now, everything is still just brown. And brown.
Oh, right, it’s windy too. And nippy.
The only good thing about March…you may start to hear the spring peepers at night, like I did this week.
And I saw a robin red breast, too.
But I still hate March.
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This Week’s Links:
What I Read This Week: I finished Blaze (not bad character study from Stephen King), continuing on with The Haunting of H.G. Wells, and started The Gift Horse, by Mary McMullen.
What I Watched This Week: Blood Simple
Blind Magazine: The Unseen Photos of Robert Frank
Photography Goal: This look.
NY Times Interactive: The Plan To Protect Indigenous Elders Living Under The Northern Lights. (love how this is done, great photos by Pat Kane)
Huck Magazine: A new showcase of David Goldblatt’s work.
New To Me: LIFE photographer Arthur Rickerby
Attention!: Build Up Your Concentration
BBC News: Peter Mitchell and a time capsule of Leeds
Watch: Sean Tucker on Edward Curtis (if he’s a new photographer to you, this is a great overview)
Watch: Dan Milnor on the difference between a soft photograph and an out-of-focus one.
From The Archives: With tomorrow being Word Water Day, read a blog post I did in 2012 about why the day is important.
“The use of the camera has always been for me a tool of investigation, a reason to travel, to not mind my own business, and often to get into trouble.” ~ Danny Lyon (March 16, 1942)
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2021
Update: Going To The Mattresses
Just a quick update on what’s going on in my local community, especially if you’ve read this post and this post about the developing situation.
On Monday evening, my neighbors and local community finally got a chance to hear from the developer about the proposed warehouse that’s to sit on the land in the photo above.
It was a long meeting – started promptly at 7 pm and finished at 10 pm, and we still weren’t done.
I’m happy to stay we went to the mattresses and showed up strong – more than 350 of us dialed in the Zoom meeting. The local zoning board, and many of those in my community, asked good, hard questions of the developers, mainly around the traffic impact on our country roads but also light pollution and sewage treatment too.
This was the notice posted on FB prior to the meeting
In many cases, the developers team gave us the “We can find out that answer for our next meeting.”
To me, they should have come better prepared. And, by the sounds of it, if a vote had been taken on Monday evening, the developers would have lost.
But, as there are still outstanding questions that we need answers to, another meeting is on the books for April.
I fully expect us all to again come on strong and have a good showing. Maybe, by summer, we can move on from this particular case.
Sadly, many of our neighbors in other local rural communities are fighting the exact same issue. There’s an interesting article here about “warehouse sprawl” in our area.
So, we’ll keep up the fight, see if we can’t make a difference.
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2021
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JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 03.13.21
I don’t know…maybe the pandemic is getting to me.
Heck, it should be getting to me at this point.
But, I’ve been spoiling for a fight all week.
The ignorance of people online is really getting to me.
They hid behind the thin veil of their screen, thinking it’s ok to say whatever they want to whomever they want.
That’s weak to me.
Be a better person.
Would you say it to their face? No? Then don’t send it out into the world.
Then don’t be bruised when someone comes back at you (like me).
In other news, I’m making plans.
Some big, some small.
Things to shut down. Things to start up.
Where do we go from here?
This Week’s Links:
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What I Read This Week: Continuing with Blaze and started The Haunting of H. G. Wells
What I Watched This Week: A TCM double feature of Bogey on Friday night: The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. If they are on, I’m watching both of them.
What I Made This Week: Roasted Red Pepper pesto
PetaPixel: “NTFs” were in the news this week. I don’t really know what they are and don’t really care (like bitcoins to me -a big meh) but, so you know: What are NTFs and why should photographers care
CNN: How one photographers shapes the way we see Joe Biden
TIME: 12 Months of the Pandemic
Watch on YouTube/Listen on Spotify: Kenneth Jarecke talks to photojournalist David Butow (the stories about Dylan and Graceland are worth it.)
Watch, via The Slanted Lens: Determining strobe output in daylight
RIP: Giovanni Gastel
RIP: Barbara Ess
Best Photo I Saw This Week: From Kent Porter
From the JSP archives: This week, many people were looking back to the start of the pandemic. So, here’s my post from around this time a year ago, March 14, 2020. That week was the last time I saw my parents, too. Mom’s gotten her vaccine, I hope to get mine soon.
“Pictures can and do make a difference. Strong images of historical events do have an impact on society.” ~ Charles Lee Moore (March 9, 1931 – March 11, 2010)
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2021
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TearSheet: Alexander Sousa’s Website
It’s always interesting to me how people find my images out on the World Wide Web, and how they want to potentially use them.
Such was the case back in early February when I got an email from writer Alexander Sousa.
His request was quite simple: I’m a writer, I’m getting ready to pitch my first novel manuscript to agents, and I’m redoing my website to get ready for that. I’m going with a pulpy, noir feel. I found your photo “The Pulp, The Fiction” and I love it. I was wondering if I could license that photo and use it as my hero/header image on my landing page.
A simple, straightforward request.
The hardest part, though, was trying to remember what photo I called “The Pulp, The Fiction.”
I’ve shot a lot of noir images, and that title just wasn’t jumping out at me.
Bitter Little Words, 2013
In a short span, though, I did locate the image (oh, right…or write…the one with the old typewriter!).A couple of more emails back-and-forth and I was able to send Alex the hi-res file.
The next morning, it was up on this website!
I’ve always like this image, one that I created with a rented Fuji X100S back in 2013. I actually like color version of this shot a lot, too, but the B&W rendered well.
If you notice, though, Alex flipped it for use with his banner. I’m guessing he needed tha that dark negative space over the typewriter over on the left side so that he could put his text there.
That’s all well and good…but it makes the text on the Lucky Strike pack backwards. I won’t lie – that bugs me a little bit. Not that he flipped it – he commissioned it, he can do what he wants – but that it’s a little wonky upon close inspection.
But no matter. It’s cool to see it up and live on this website. Hopefully, it will do its job of greeting his website visitors and getting them ready for a two-fisted noir experience!
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2021
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