HCP 28th Annual Membership Exhibition

July 14th, 2010

An excellent showing of photographs from around the county!

Bevin Bering Dubrowski and Hannah Frieser at the HCP gallery in Houston Texas

Ms. Dubrowski introducing Ms Frieser at the opening of the 28th Annual Membership Exhibitions

Houston, Texas, July 9, 2010

Houston Center for Photography (HCP)

Presentation and opening of the 28th Annual Juried Membership Exhibition of photographs.

A fair size crowd arrived prior to 5:30 PM to hear the presentation by the juror, Ms. Hannah Frieser, on the right, Director of Light Work at Syracuse University, NY. Introducing Ms. Frieser was Ms. Bevin Bering Dubrowski, Director of HCP. Behind them is the photograph, “Li Long Street Night, Shanghai, China” by Margaret Stratton of Iowa City, IA.

To this reviewer this exhibit is perhaps the finest presentation of members images at HCP in the past seven years. Selections were made from an extremely large number of photographs put onto CDs for Ms. Frieser to go through. She said it was difficult but enlightening to see the wide subject range and excellence. Images on the walls show the high quality of work, which is superb. Sequencing of images is also very good, that is, as you move along the various walls, there are no major jolts. Images move well, one to the other.

Cynthia Morgan Batmanis, And If I Did No. 2

And If I Did No.2 by Cynthia Morgan Batmanis, 2010

There is a good showing of black and white, alternative processes, as well as wet processes. The majority, however, are listed as ink jet prints.  Of the total 60 photographs, 8 are silver gelatin; 10 are Chromogenic, that is prints from the wet process or standard Type C prints; 7 are what’s known today as alternative processes of which 5 are palladium/platinum while two are a slightly different palladium known as ziatype That’s 25 non-digitally produced although chromogenics can easily be made from digital files Read the rest of this entry »

Self-made persons?

July 1st, 2010

So you think you’re a self-made person?

Sandy Eddy by Don Eddy

Self-images

Last year the same question was mostly answered by a book received at Christmas from my daughter. My comments then from my nearly daily Ramblings:

July 19, 2009–house sitting a War Horse Farm near Sarasota, Florida

Not many months ago I read a book that described quite well the circumstances that move a person along their pathways to become what they become,  Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. There is the easily made comment that a person is self-made but Malcolm has shown that many others relative to any self-made person have been the real stepping stones for without them, that person would not, through their own efforts, have become the end product at any particular time.

What or why do events or actions or things, call these what you will, happen to people? For example, there have been many times which I have recognized and some written about that occur in my life, those not-on-purpose happenings that come together at a near single time. Here’s the most recent one. Read the rest of this entry »

Serious photographers?

November 7th, 2009

Where have we been, as photographers?

Needle in light bulb with reflector

Needle in light bulb with reflector

This evening, Friday, November 6, 2009, as I sit at my small table, Max, my German Shepherd sleeps lightly on the couch a couple feet away. I’ve been going over the night photographs I’ve made during the past year-and-a-half. This past Sunday I conducted another night time workshop in a country setting with the full moon illuminating the different scenes. On November 15, another Sunday, the group will be downtown Houston to shoot various scenes without a moon. (more)

War Horse Farm sitting

June 29th, 2009

On the evening of June 11 we parted ways with Texas and headed for Florida via New Orleans to rephotograph some of the places we’d shot 18 months after Katrinna while on our way to Florida.

This would be the shake-down trip.

We made it with little difficulty and only a minor problem or two.

So here we are for the summer, just a bit east of Sarasota, watching over an Arabian horse, taking care of a nice swimming pool and cutting some four acres of grass!

Loading the trailer

Loading the trailer

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Public’s right to photograph buildings

January 24th, 2009
Security guards responding to photographers

Security guards responding to photographers

(Image used with permission from Discarted.com)

In LA a group of photographers began photographing the US Bank building and were immediately confronted by numerous security guards. There’s a video on their website and numerous comments, one of which includes a quote of California law specifically stating it is illegal to interfere with the rights of citizens to photograph in public places. Take a look.

At 103 he was snitching a piece of cake!

October 20th, 2008

Dad snitching cake

Donald W. Eddy at 103

September 10, 2008. My brother, Paul from Nevada, and I drove to Sarasota, Florida to see Dad. Our sister had called a few days earlier saying that Dad was most likely on his last legs and the inevitable would probably happen within a week or so. He’d been in bed for about two weeks not wanting to get up, not wanting to shave or eat. He’d said he was tired . . . (more)

I saw the beginning of Kodak’s downward spiral

August 27th, 2008

Being a photographer within Eastman Kodak Company’s research facilities in Rochester, took me to many areas of new ideas being hatched by the many young scientists working a great variety of projects. Each staff member was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that basically said nothing could be revealed about the work being done within a one year period of leaving the company. (article)

Laser lab

Laser lab at Eastman Kodak, ca. 1970

A Small Revolution at Eastman Kodak!

August 17th, 2008

Myopic Corporate Power

For whatever small reason, a sidebar link at the New York Times site Kodak Article, I took a short trip back in time via the Net to see what was going on at Kodak Park today, August 2008, especially in research where I’d spent five years in Building 59 from 1966-71 at the experienced ages of 27-32. Maybe this was triggered because my boss at Kodak, one of the very few creative and future thinking people I’ve ever known at Kodak had recently died, Earl Kage.

Earl, Director of the Motion Picture Research Studios, as a supervisory person, did not play the power game as so many at large corporations do. He was dedicated to having his photographers, seven including himself, produce the finest output of images possible.
I was the most recent hired photographer having been offered the job and lured away from the George Eastman House where I’d been on staff for three years. I was also the only college educated photographer having studied at Rochester Institute of Technology and had considerable knowledge of the chemistry, physics, and processes that Kodak used.

The studios main objective was the testing of every Kodak produced film product for still and motion picture cameras. This also included all competitors’ products for comparison. In between testing assignments Earl would have us use the studios or to go out and shoot whatever we wanted just as long as the images were excellent and creative. These would be used to present at various times to Kodak employees showing everyone how excellent were the Kodak films as well as promotional and recruiting.

This is the first installment of the power games supervisory people play as they have occurred to or been witnessed by me over the past forty years. The NY Times article quite infuriated me because of the truths contained within it! The arrogant viewed superiority and narrow mindedness of those in charge of research, and no doubt many other departments, was a direct, as I saw it, impediment to Kodak’s future. It probably continues to this day and is certainly a major reason for Kodak’s decompression. Check out the NY Times link above.

Here’s an example that took place many years ago.


A typical corporate chemistry lab during the 1960s. Unknown person.

Sam Campanaro, my immediate supervisor and first under Earl Kage, and I were assigned to do some photography in a newly built research building on the banks far above the Genesee River a block or so north and across Lake Avenue. We loaded Sam’s car with lights, 4×5 and 35mm cameras, ancillary items and lots of film. We expected to be shooting for about three full days. The photos would be used in a variety of publications and displays. Read the rest of this entry »

Big Sur Fire 2008

August 9th, 2008

The Big Sur Fire 2008

The flight from Los Angeles to San Jose started fairly well  along the coast and over the Pacific. A huge fog bank lay just off the land extending for miles to the north. Eventually we headed inland flying over mountainous areas. I saw no direct flames from fires but there were definite signs of smoke rising from localized areas. Some photos I took while over the Santa Cruz mountains prior to landing contain plumes of smoke, but no flames. Read the rest of this entry »

Night Photo Workshop – Monterey, CA

August 4th, 2008

Visit to Monterey, California

During a one week July visit to Monterey and Carmel, California, scoping out the place to once again return to, I conducted a Sunday night photo workshop that was not only quite successful in image making, but a serendipity event took place during the first hour of getting to know and hearing needs and questions from the students.

Conversation about the previous night’s sunset at Carmel beach and the fact that it is so dog friendly brought up viewing some photos I’d made that very evening, which included people around beach fires, playing Frisbee, and walking with their dogs. From the bordering footpath above the beach I’d taken numerous pics. In several of them a couple and their dog had been walking in my direction. As two of the students, a married couple from Greece, he attending the Naval Post Graduate School, looked at the images on the computer screen they suddenly exclaimed, “That’s us! And our dog!” I went through several photos and in each enlarged them to full size. Sure enough, it was them!

Carmel beach at sunset

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