About
This site is an outgrowth of the Center for Photographic Art newsletter, “Focus.” For almost seven years, ending in September 2007, I edited that publication. I wrote a column called “The Last Word” that appeared on the last page of the newsletter. This blog contains those columns that haven’t bevome too dated, and adds my current photographic musings.
This blog is by and for photographers who are creating art. Some entries are identified as “Technical.” While much of what I have to say is about the nuts and bolts of photography, I try to avoid details like calculating film speed from D-log E curves, or picking kernals for sharpening filters. The tutorial on digital storage of photographs is unabashedly technical, but no more than it has to be to get the job done. On the other hand, you won’t find any long discussions of aesthetics here, nor will you encounter any postmodern skepticism or deconstruction.
You also won’t find much about the struggle to be a 21st-Century artist in the industrialized Western World. That’s not because I don’t struggle, but because, from a distance, my problems are pretty standard, and I don’t have much to say about them that hasn’t been handled far better by people like David Bayles and Ted Orland.
I appreciate comments along the lines of, “Great site!” However, as I expect that I am nearly alone in that feeling, I read them, think warm thoughts, and hit delete. If you comments aren’t posted, don’t take it as a sign that I am rejecting them or you.
Starting in February of 2009, I started posting in a newly-created category called “The Bleeding Edge.” The entries are about my struggles with the computer technology involved with digital photography. It has become my most popular category, although it’s not clear that my audience is made up of photographers. Back in the 70s and early 80s, I used to enjoy Jerry Pournelle’s column in Byte Magazine, and The Bleeding Edge is my way of carrying on the thread. I realize that many photographers aren’t interested in computer and network minutia; if you’re one of them, just click “The Last Word” in the category chooser on the right menu bar, and you won’t see any computer stuff.
Jim Kasson