K E E N P R E S S

Well, we are finally back in Copenhagen after being away for nearly three months. Missed the entire COP-15 Climate Conference, instead, we were sailing in the Southern Ocean, filming whales, black penguins, and albatross. Three trips in total onboard the National Geographic Explorer. The guests were great, and nearly everyone left the expedition feeling really good about all they had learned, both from the Lindblad naturalists and the Lindblad/Geographic photo team. Here is a link to all of the Daily Expedition Reports to see where and what we were up to. Click here. We have been updating our website with some of the imagery, take a look if you have time. Now we are processing all of our stills and videos, sending them off to the agencies and preparing our summer up North in the Arctic.

Here is a link to our next big trip, Beyond the North Cape, Norway’s Fjord’s and Arctic Svalbard. We will be representing the National Geographic onboard, helping everyone master their skills in photography, and now something new, digital video. With all the new cameras coming out with HD video capabilities, its time to get out the notebooks and start learning, yet another. set of skills. What new and special techniques do you need to think about what you start shooting motion, and recording sound. I am working right now on the curriculum, and will post updates as they get polished. As you know, we have been actively engaged in the recent migration from stills to video. There are shooting and editing techniques to consider, and what better way than on a Lindblad Expedition. One last note before I sign off. We made a new ‘best friend’ on the trip. His name is Andrew Evans, and you have probably heard of him from his Bus2Antarctica project with Geographic Traveler magazine. Read his blog and follow his tweets. It’s changing the way we report and send material back to our loyal readers. He also happens to be one of the nicest persons we have met in a long time. It was a pleasure to travel and work with him. Okay, need to get back to editing and distributing the work. The agencies are anxiously waiting for the material. Stay tuned, I will be back soon.

Here is a definition I found on Yahoo Answers today.

Deadpan refers to a plain lack of expression – applied to the sitter / subject

Wow, doesn’t that say it all. I just received my new issue of The New Yorker, and Jeff Minton has two pictures that really say it all. Nothing. Am I being too harsh? I am not so sure. Nothing  against his success in the industry, its more the entire genre that I have issues with.

I was raised in a different time, an era when I was introduced to beauty; paintings, music, and photography that moved me emotionally. I have always had such a low tolerance to art that subscribes to theories and preconceived concepts. Throughout my entire life I have been emotionally moved by so little. Perhaps that is why  I spend all of my time trying to create something that works for me. I love exploring with colors, shapes, balance, and depth. I have always had a connection to the Abstract Expressionists who lived in New York during the 40′s creating the New York School. My photographic mentor, who I apprenticed with before starting my first photographic career with National Geographic, was Jules Alexander. His studio was on East 69th Street, in the former Mark Rothko studio. I was very much aware of this connection. It meant a tremendous amount to me.

“Silence is so accurate,” Rothko would say, fearing that words would only paralyze the viewer’s mind and imagination. In their manifesto in the New York Times Rothko and Gottlieb had written: “We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.”

Let me know if I am the only person in the world that wuold like to say “Goodby” to this photographic fad. Let’s bring back emotion to the world of photography.

This looks like a very interesting online photographic magazine worth bookmarking.

DEEPSLEEP

About Deep Sleep

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Deep Sleep magazine, which we hope will be the first of many. We aim to generate and gather enough material to produce four such issues a year and contributions are invited from any and all photographers with a suitable set of images.

via Deep Sleep Magazine – This Issue.