Thanks Robert Coe

A quick jot of thanks to Robert Coe.

My SO and I did a 1 week loop, mostly on the coast from SW CT thru to
Boston then up through the White Mountains.

About 2 months ago Robert mentioned the Ansel Adams exhibit "At the
Water's Edge" showing at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. I tried to
get there in late June, but that didn't pan out. Last week we included
the PEM (and spent most of the day there).

http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/139-a...he_waters_edge

The AA exhibit was marvelous and while there were a few known photos
there, most were new to me. A few shots from a teen age AA shooting
with a brownie showed his eye developed early.

Seeing these prints (mostly loaned from other museums, collections and
the AA Trust) was great. I looked at each from far off, close in and
really close.. The shadow detail and 'glow' in some of the images is
something to take in. And using the full range of the grey tones,
subtle ranges and sharp contrasts work together very effectively.

Out of the whole collection there (about 150 phots, not sure), there are
about 10 stand outs. True master pieces.

If in that area it's worth a visit to be sure.

I bought a book made around the exhibit and two "prints" (litho I
suspect but the screen is very fine). The prints (on matting) were $25
ea. and the book $30. The only downside here is that the AA Trust only
allowed the PEM to offer 9 images in large prints. So a couple that I
liked particularly were not available.

And the PEM had other exhibits as well including an often stunning
Chinese art and artifacts exhibit of ancient through recent paintings,
sculptures, objets-d'art, commercial "art" and so on.

There was another photo exhibit by an American photographer revolving
around her home life. Much dedicated to her parents. Half the shots
were snapshooty in look. Wasn't too impressed but there were a few very
good photos.

Another note, we ate very well on the trip.

Esp. nice was the Beehive Tavern in East Sandwich (Cape Cod).

And prices for very good fare and wine were surprisingly low everywhere
we wandered into (usually with a nudge from the m/hotels we were at).

--
"Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities."
-Samuel Clemens.

On 8/5/12 PDT 8:20 AM, Alan Browne wrote:

A quick jot of thanks to Robert Coe.

My SO and I did a 1 week loop, mostly on the coast from SW CT thru to
Boston then up through the White Mountains.

About 2 months ago Robert mentioned the Ansel Adams exhibit "At the
Water's Edge" showing at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. I tried to
get there in late June, but that didn't pan out. Last week we included
the PEM (and spent most of the day there).

http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/139-a...he_waters_edge

Nice!

The first photo on the site you cite: Is it as blurry (in the middle) in
real life as it appears in the jpeg?

On Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:20:35 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:
:
: A quick jot of thanks to Robert Coe.
:
: My SO and I did a 1 week loop, mostly on the coast from SW CT thru to
: Boston then up through the White Mountains.
:
: About 2 months ago Robert mentioned the Ansel Adams exhibit "At the
: Water's Edge" showing at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. I tried to
: get there in late June, but that didn't pan out. Last week we included
: the PEM (and spent most of the day there).
:
: http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/139-a...he_waters_edge
:
: The AA exhibit was marvelous and while there were a few known photos
: there, most were new to me.
:
: ...
:
: Another note, we ate very well on the trip.
:
: Esp. nice was the Beehive Tavern in East Sandwich (Cape Cod).
:
: And prices for very good fare and wine were surprisingly low everywhere
: we wandered into (usually with a nudge from the m/hotels we were at).

You're very welcome, Alan! Glad you enjoyed your visit to our area.

The trip must have resulted in many pictures taken "on the road". Is your SO a
photographer too?

Bob

On 2012-08-05 12:52 , Robert Coe wrote:
On Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:20:35 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:
:
: A quick jot of thanks to Robert Coe.
:
: My SO and I did a 1 week loop, mostly on the coast from SW CT thru to
: Boston then up through the White Mountains.
:
: About 2 months ago Robert mentioned the Ansel Adams exhibit "At the
: Water's Edge" showing at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. I tried to
: get there in late June, but that didn't pan out. Last week we included
: the PEM (and spent most of the day there).
:
: http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/139-a...he_waters_edge
:
: The AA exhibit was marvelous and while there were a few known photos
: there, most were new to me.
:
: ...
:
: Another note, we ate very well on the trip.
:
: Esp. nice was the Beehive Tavern in East Sandwich (Cape Cod).
:
: And prices for very good fare and wine were surprisingly low everywhere
: we wandered into (usually with a nudge from the m/hotels we were at).

You're very welcome, Alan! Glad you enjoyed your visit to our area.

It's an area I know relatively well. This was an opportunity to visit
some nooks and crannies - and the PEM. She was closer to your
particular area last month at a forum near Pittsfield that I had to bail
on. I was going to use that trip to head over to the PEM.

She also 'bonused' on that trip by visiting the Norman Rockwell museum
(Stockbridge) (discovering that he used professional photographers
extensively in preparation for his illustrations and paintings).

We visited a place on Cape Cod (Sandwich) called the Heritage Museums
and Gardens (nice, a bit touristy) which was holding a Norman Rockwell
exhibit at the time. I enjoyed that part of it esp. (what drew me there
was a drawing in the hotel office of a Shaker "round barn". I asked if
that was on Cape Cod and it was. But turns out it was a replica, not an
original Shaker barn - nice car collection in there if you're into that
sort of thing).

One of the Rockwell paintings was
http://www.doubletakeart.com/images/...4_large_tr.gif
Which measured about 8 feet wide. Amazing painting (although it had
some cliché "Rockwell" elements in it that weakened it IMO).

And at the entrance to that building was a large transparency from a
photo that Rockwell took (on commission to Kodak Eastman) that I imagine
was taken with Kodachrome 25 sheet film. (No info was available). This
is the only known commissioned photo by Rockwell. (It was part of an
advertisement displayed at Central or Penn (I don't recall) station in
NYC.).

The transparency was obviously based on (or inspired) one of the iconic
Rockwell's: (Outing: going/coming).
http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/ima...st-30-1947.jpg

He used a lot of fill lights for the shot (and if you examine the
transparency you can see where).

This is the only image I can find online

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-l...U-4/11%2B-%2B1

This was a transparency of about 48 x 14 inches. The one that was hung
in the rail station was much larger.

He managed to get about 20 people into a composition with all the
classic elements of a Rockwell moment. (Family closing the cottage,
kids saying goodbye to friends, dad trying to imagine all that luggage
in the car and so on.)

A brilliant photo that was all Rockewell cliché.

The trip must have resulted in many pictures taken "on the road". Is your SO a
photographer too?

Less than I would have thought. Yes, but she didn't take a single
photo. She did find some bolet mushrooms and 'took' those.


--
"Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities."
-Samuel Clemens.

On 2012-08-05 12:38 , John McWilliams wrote:
On 8/5/12 PDT 8:20 AM, Alan Browne wrote:

A quick jot of thanks to Robert Coe.

My SO and I did a 1 week loop, mostly on the coast from SW CT thru to
Boston then up through the White Mountains.

About 2 months ago Robert mentioned the Ansel Adams exhibit "At the
Water's Edge" showing at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. I tried to
get there in late June, but that didn't pan out. Last week we included
the PEM (and spent most of the day there).

http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/139-a...he_waters_edge

Nice!

The first photo on the site you cite: Is it as blurry (in the middle) in
real life as it appears in the jpeg?

On my screens this image (your link above) comes up with blown
highlights - perhaps that was deliberately done by the PEM/AA Trust (?).[1]

There was no blur per se (some AA's have areas of uncertain focus or
sharpness not due to motion[2]). I'm looking at the same image in the
book I bought (Plate 55 "Stream, Sea and clouds, Rodeo Lagoon, Marin
County, California, 1962") and it is not as blown out as on the website.
Take it into PS and bring the brightness down to -60 and it's close to
the image in the book - at least on my monitor.

The image above has a lot of specular reflections that break the tones
of the contrasting areas. It also has areas that are blown highlights
in the waves breaking on the beach.

Suffice to say the image on the website doesn't do justice to the image
in the book - and the image in the book isn't quite up to the print at
the PEM.

[1] Be sure that many of AA's images do have blown highlights, esp. in
foamy water and clouds. But they are on the very edge, not large blobs
of undefinition.

[2] While AA didn't have much selective focus in the prints I saw, the
sharpness was not uniform in all images. Some were tack sharp, some
were sharp and some were a bit soft (some really early stuff was plain
soft). And some images had inexplicable areas of softness in otherwise
deep DOF images.

--
"Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities."
-Samuel Clemens.

On 05 Aug 2012 in rec.photo.digital.slr-systems, Alan Browne wrote:

(It was part of an advertisement displayed at Central or Penn (I
don't recall) station in NYC.).

You're perhaps thinking of the Kodak Coloramas which used to hang in
Grand Central Terminal? (The "World's Largest Photographs"...)

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/feat.../colorama.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorama_%28Kodak%29

I worked a couple of summers for Kodak, and one of the jobs I got
assigned was muscling Coloramas around Kodak Park.

--
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.org/
Email: http://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/

On 2012-08-05 20:23 , Joe Makowiec wrote:
On 05 Aug 2012 in rec.photo.digital.slr-systems, Alan Browne wrote:

(It was part of an advertisement displayed at Central or Penn (I
don't recall) station in NYC.).

You're perhaps thinking of the Kodak Coloramas which used to hang in
Grand Central Terminal? (The "World's Largest Photographs"...)

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/feat.../colorama.html

Yes. The particular one, in any detail is the last on that list - but
shows cropped at that link. The 2nd link doesn't work.


--
"Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities."
-Samuel Clemens.

On Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:20:35 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:


A quick jot of thanks to Robert Coe.

My SO and I did a 1 week loop, mostly on the coast from SW CT thru to
Boston then up through the White Mountains.

About 2 months ago Robert mentioned the Ansel Adams exhibit "At the
Water's Edge" showing at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. I tried to
get there in late June, but that didn't pan out. Last week we included
the PEM (and spent most of the day there).

http://www.pem.org/exhibitions/139-a...he_waters_edge

The AA exhibit was marvelous and while there were a few known photos
there, most were new to me. A few shots from a teen age AA shooting
with a brownie showed his eye developed early.

Seeing these prints (mostly loaned from other museums, collections and
the AA Trust) was great. I looked at each from far off, close in and
really close.. The shadow detail and 'glow' in some of the images is
something to take in. And using the full range of the grey tones,
subtle ranges and sharp contrasts work together very effectively.

Out of the whole collection there (about 150 phots, not sure), there are
about 10 stand outs. True master pieces.

If in that area it's worth a visit to be sure.

I bought a book made around the exhibit and two "prints" (litho I
suspect but the screen is very fine). The prints (on matting) were $25
ea. and the book $30. The only downside here is that the AA Trust only
allowed the PEM to offer 9 images in large prints. So a couple that I
liked particularly were not available.

And the PEM had other exhibits as well including an often stunning
Chinese art and artifacts exhibit of ancient through recent paintings,
sculptures, objets-d'art, commercial "art" and so on.

There was another photo exhibit by an American photographer revolving
around her home life. Much dedicated to her parents. Half the shots
were snapshooty in look. Wasn't too impressed but there were a few very
good photos.

Another note, we ate very well on the trip.

Esp. nice was the Beehive Tavern in East Sandwich (Cape Cod).

And prices for very good fare and wine were surprisingly low everywhere
we wandered into (usually with a nudge from the m/hotels we were at).

Did any of us Pan Mass rider get in your way over the trip?

On 2012-08-06 09:53 , Bowser wrote:

Did any of us Pan Mass rider get in your way over the trip?

Had to look that up. Were you on that ride?

We didn't see many cyclists. The odd pair here and there. Most 2 lane
highways that we were on were generously large with wide shoulders, so
cyclists were never an issue to pass.

We weren't in MA very much. We booted straight south from Montreal to
White Plains (87) and then slowly worked our way north (mainly on US 1)
thru CT, RI and to CC. After that swung around Boston, thence to Salem
(did the "witch" museum which was, er, entertaining) and the PEM. Next
day in the White Mountains and entered QC at the southeast 'corner'
(VT/NH).

Should have taken a photo - one of the signs on a fellow's yard:

"Northern Pass can kiss my ass!"

then a mile or so on:

"Ditto!"

(NP is a 1200MW HVDC QC-NH project that is not winning fans all over NH).

Also got stopped for an illegal pass in NH. I had been trying to get
around a pickup truck for a while and finally had a straight stretch,
good view and did it. But, it was a construction zone within which one
is not allowed to pass in NH (there was a sign, he said, but I never saw
it). The trooper took my paperwork and then came back with a verbal
warning. Nice fellow.

--
"Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities."
-Samuel Clemens.