Dynamic Events I

"A person is quite different from a tree or rock or stream. By introducing the nude into my pictures, I started perceiving all the things I was photographing in new ways. In contrast or opposition to each other, things became much more significant and interesting, revealing many more qualities than I had ever dreamed of knowing and expressing. By using the nude, I stopped thinking in terms of objects. I was seeing things, instead, as dynamic events, unique in their own beings yet also related and existing together within a universal context of energy and change."

--Wynn Bullock

Jean-Philippe Poli: B&W Seascapes

Jean-Philippe Poli's portfolio of B&W Seascapes.

Space Imaging's Top 10 IKONOS Satellite Images for 2004

Check out Space Imaging's Top 10 IKONOS Satellite Images for 2004 .

Let it Happen

"Very often I try to find something that matches a feeling I have. On the other hand, a lot of times I photograph with nothing specific in mind. I just play it as it comes. If it's good, fine. I find 'letting it happen' relaxing, a playful vacation. Stimulating pictures almost always result."

--Minor White

Néstor Botta: W & B

Néstor Botta's W & B portfolio.

The Mind's Eye

"The medium of photography can record not only what the eyes see, but that which the mind's eye sees as well. The camera is not only an extension of the eye, but of the brain. It can see sharper, farther, nearer, slower, faster than the eye. It can see by invisible light. It can see in the past, present, and future. Instead of using the camera only to reproduce objects, I wanted to use it to make what is invisible to the eye, visible."

--Wynn Bullock

[ photograph above: Arcosanti, 2004 ]

Siegfried Burgstaller: Black and White

Siegfried Burgstaller's Black and White portfolio.

A Fleeting Moment

"Nothing is ever the same twice because everything is always gone forever, and yet each moment has infinite photographic possibilities."

--Michael Kenna

Titling Photographs

Recently, someone looked at one of my photographs and said "What *is* it?" Which is fine, because I've been doing more and more abstract work lately. But the follow-up was a little disturbing. "Why don't you title your photographs so we can tell what they are?"

I used to title my work, but it got to be too laborious given the quantity of new work I was churning out. Did I already use that title? Should this bew "Tree and Rock #3" or "Tree and Rock #4"? That one was "Surf and Sand", can I call this variation "Sand and Surf"?

What I settled on was the location and the date, except in the case of still life images where I usually just put the date. But the question "Why don't you title your photographs so we can tell what they are?" from a random gallery visitor made me re-think these practices.

The bottom line is, if someone is looking at one of my photographs and cannot tell what it is without being told or reading a description, then as a photographer I am either a total failure or a total success. Which one? Depends on what I'm trying to accomplish with the photograph. Given the direction I've been going, if you find one of my photographs to be pleasing but you have no idea what the hell you are looking at, then I consider it to be a complete success. If you're curious, go ahead and ask; I won't hesistate to try to explain what you are looking at. But don't expect me to spell it out for you in tiny letters in the lower left.

[ photograph above: Claremont Packing House, 2005 ]

What is Reality?

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

--Albert Einstein

John Scheiber: Black and White

John Scheiber's Black and White portfolio.

Spirit

"No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen."

--Minor White

Ilona Wellmann: Droplet Study

Ilona Wellmann's Droplet Study portfolio.

Miguel Mealha: Fences/Cercas

Miguel Mealha's Fences/Cercas portfolio.

Print Sales

Yes, I sell prints. Up until now, most people have bought my prints directly from me or through a gallery, although I sold a few from my Web site. But buying a print from my Web site used to be difficult, and most prints on the web site didn't have a "buy" button or price displayed. That is all about to change.

I'm in the process of enabling purchase of any print from the web site. All available sizes will be listed for each print. It's a lot of work, but it's what people have been asking for.

As an example, here's what it looks like on the Web site.

The shopping cart is managed by PayPal, so it's secure. As an added bonus, all prices include postage and handling within the U.S.!

[ photograph above: Claremont Packing House, 2005 ]

Michael Reichmann: Ship-Breaking Yards

Michael Reichmann' fascinating photographic portrayal of the Ship-Breaking Yards at Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Web Site Updates

I've been making a lot of edits to my Web site. For some people, the most significant change will be that the light gray text is now solid black!

All my prints are mounted on white mount board and titled/dated/signed lightly in pencil. The original concept of this web site was to replicate that as much as possible--ample use of white space to mimic the mount board, and light gray text to mimic the penciled title/date/signature.

Over the years I've fielded many complaints about the gray text being unreadable. Most of the compaints have come from laptop users, but some people with regular monitors also had trouble with it. But I could read it just fine ;-). Well I finally caved in and converted all the text to black. It *is* much easier to read, and it looks good, but I'm worried that in some cases the text might overpower the images (it is, after all, ALL about the IMAGES!). But now that it's done, there's no turning back. I hope everyone now enjoys being able to read my Web site!

You can check out the changes at www.mattartz.com.

Many more Web site changes have been done recently or are being done now...

[ photograph above: La Jola, 2004 ]

Agua Para Los Ninos Portfolio: Six New Images

I've just posted six new images to my Agua Para Los Ninos portfolio, bringing the total number of images to twelve.

Agua Para Los Ninos

The new images are the ones at the bottom.

This set of images has proven to be fairly popular, and I probably sold five or six of them last year. This year I will be further expanding the portfolio.

[ photograph above: Lugonia Elementary, 2004 ]

Rocket Cam: First Flight

The Rocket Cam tested fine on the workbench. I hooked the camera up to my laptop with a USB cable and in "web cam" mode adjusted the mirror over the lens so I got two fins and a bit of the rocket body in the frame. It looked so cool, moving the rocket around in the garage.

The first launch took place at a construction site by my house. We had just launched six other rockets (five very successfully!) at a local Middle School, but I didn't want to launch the Rocket Cam there because of the size of the field.

The first flight of the Rocket Cam was with a D-12 5 engine. I readied the camera, started counting down, and just before launch heard a "beep"--the camera went into power save mode and shut itself off. So I re-set the camera, counted down REALLY FAST, and launched it.

It tore off the pad, kind of surprised me; I took a step back and fell into a small ditch at the construction site! But was able to quickly get up and see the flight. It fishtailed ever so slightly at the beginning, then straightened. A very good first flight. That thing went HIGH!!! I'm really bad at estimating these things, but at least 600 to 700 feet, maybe more, The ejection charge popped out the chutes, and you could just barely make out the two pieces coming down.

My son and his friend were standing about 150 feet away at the base of a steep hill. There was absolutely no wind, and the two pieces came down about a second apart, about 15 feet from each other, and would have been caught by the two boys except they were having trouble scrambling up the side of the steep hill. The addition of the larger parachute for the payload section was a good idea, and the fact the two pieces landed so close together tells me the sizing is perfect.

I immediately checked the camera, and it didn't look good. It was set for low resolution, high compression, continuous, which means as soon as the switch was tripped at launch it should have taken 150+ tiny photos in rapid succession until running out of memory. But the display showed no pictures in the camera, and set to single shot, high resolution, low compression...only a few hours later when I was thinking clearly did I realize what had happened; the camera had re-set to default settings, which only happens when the batteries die or are disconnected, so my theory is that the g-force of the launch caused a power interruption.

Anyway, the flight itself was AWESOME, for such a big (almost three feet long), heavy (TOP HEAVY) rocket with some funk (mirror and switch) sticking out its sides, it went HIGH!

Not a scratch on the thing, and it will fly again! And I've been told that the reset problem was most likely caused by the batteries shifting during launch and losing contact for a brief moment. That's something I can try to fix. So back to the garage...

Coming soon (hopefully): a report on the second flight of the Rocket Cam.

[ photograph above: Little Lakes, 2004 ]

RSS Site Feed

My blog is now syndicated through an RSS site feed. If you'd like to subscribe, the site feed URL is:

http://mattartz.blogspot.com/atom.xml

If you don't know what this means...nevermind. ;-)

[ photograph above: Lugonia Elementary, 2004 ]