Justin Lowery, the best landscape photographer of the current times?

[Laminarman]

I experience the "you must be taking a great photo because you have a large camera" at certain locations in California, when bus loads of Chinese tourists are present. They come around me, behind me, by my side, to capture what I am trying to capture. They even touch my tripod and push, they don't have manners either. Sometimes, I am just metering the light or checking how the Fresnel is working, etc.

This reminds me of a funny as hell story that happened to me. I was walking the two miles back from the Lamar River in Yellowstone with my fly rod/gear, and about 500 yards from the road was a Chinese man lying prone with a very large telephoto on a very large DSLR resting on a pack. The sun was in his eyes, and the glimmer of the river was evident. I needed to walk right past him to get to my car, but decided to loop behind a bit instead of crossing in front of him on the path. Mind you, most people won't go five feet off the road let alone 500 yards. OK, I did wonder, maybe it was an elk, perhaps the wolf packs were out, or a grizzly. I kept looking catching my breath, and then one by one people came quickly from the road to his side, car doors slamming and traffic at a halt. It was a gorgeous evening. I was about 100 feet behind the man and he never saw me come. They all started asking ME "What does he see?" Tripods with cameras, binoculars, telephotos, spotting lenses, they were out so quickly. Never been to Yosemite, but I'm sure it's the same, there were 25 people in five minutes crowded around him "LOOKING..." Finally I hear a guy say, "Hey, what it is- what IS IT you see???? Watcha looking at??!!" In his very best grating NJ Guido accent which took any shine off that beautiful evening. He takes his head from the viewfinder and turns around, "I take picture of rock in river in sun." That crowd evaporated faster than a drop of water on a sizzling fry pan. And I loved every minute of it. Looking at the river there was a glimmer and an island in the sun with tall grass that was dancing and backlight cottonwoods. Good for that man.

[Sfroza]

So tossing an ethnic slur is your way to see if any of actually reading your drivel?
Finally I hear a guy say, "Hey, what it is- what IS IT you see???? Watcha looking at??!!" In his very best grating NJ Guido accent which took any shine off that beautiful evening.

One would think that there would be some creative imagination from frequenting a photography forum. I'm proved wrong, no creativity, no imagination. Nice.

Michael

P.S.
Here's a chalange! Find additional ethnic slurs and win extra points!

[Hal Incandenza]

Yeah Laminarman, what was the purpose of your “funny as hell story”, which is only marginally related to photography and the comical aspects of which hinge almost entirely it being told from a perspective of cultural superiority. There are participants on this forum from all over the world, including Asia and even such far away places as New Jersey. Please keep your insular and provincial sense of humor to yourself.

[Willie]

So tossing an ethnic slur is your way to see if any of actually reading your drivel?
Finally I hear a guy say, "Hey, what it is- what IS IT you see???? Watcha looking at??!!" In his very best grating NJ Guido accent which took any shine off that beautiful evening.

One would think that there would be some creative imagination from frequenting a photography forum. I'm proved wrong, no creativity, no imagination. Nice.

Michael

P.S.
Here's a chalange! Find additional ethnic slurs and win extra points!

Some people would complain if hung using a new rope.

[knjkrock]

On the topic of plagiarism-

I was reading this morning AA Examples:The Making of 40 Photographs. I was hoping to create a little spark of inspiration or find some outlet for my GAS by reading technical notes. In the essay about “White House Ruin”, he talks about how the photo was take from “almost the same spot on the canyon floor, about the same month and day, and nearly the same time of day” as one Timothy Sullivan had take decades before. Making his unique included framing, filtration, film type, luminosity, paper type, etc. Please forgive my improper use of punctuation, poor grammar, and probable improper credit for using a quote. I just felt this was an interesting essay given this discussion.

Ken

[Tin Can]

Laughing out loud!

I assume that's not 'code'...

On the topic of plagiarism-

I was reading this morning AA Examples:The Making of 40 Photographs. I was hoping to create a little spark of inspiration or find some outlet for my GAS by reading technical notes. In the essay about “White House Ruin”, he talks about how the photo was take from “almost the same spot on the canyon floor, about the same month and day, and nearly the same time of day” as one Timothy Sullivan had take decades before. Making his unique included framing, filtration, film type, luminosity, paper type, etc. Please forgive my improper use of punctuation, poor grammar, and probable improper credit for using a quote. I just felt this was an interesting essay given this discussion.

Ken

[pepeguitarra]

In art school, oil painting class, they made us copy the paintings of the famous as part of our education. I am not sure if that was to make us feel bad because we did not get close to the original, to make us learn to see color and values, to teach us how to copy, or maybe to learn about the artist him/herself. The truth is that it worked. If you saw the result of 20 people copying the same original, you will be surprised of the 20 new "originals". Everyone used their own style to produce a version of the original, not a duplicate. Of course, there was always one who tried to copy the whole thing exactly.

[Drew Wiley]

I was about to bring that topic up; but it's pretty obvious. It always amazes me how some alleged expert can jump through hoops trying to detect forgeries. Somebody once contacted me with something he believed was an undiscovered Caravaggio painting, potentially worth millions. When he pulled it out of the container it was still about twenty feet from me and, uh, I thought to myself ... well, that's one art student who should have stayed with his day job shining shoes. But it looked really old and had an ancient looking frame, so hey, at least that art student might have found work with a half-blind counterfeiter. But the person hoping to become phenomenally rich wanted me to do a little detective work before he dropped big bucks with an expert. No problem. I took some sheet film IR exposures, make an easy three hundred bucks, and handed him a small print of some 1920's painting underneath his ancient-looking Caravaggio oil pigments. The Tech Pan IR exposure even picked up the art store label still on the canvas. But it was kinda like telling a little kid that Santa Claus doesn't really exist. Gosh knows how many painted "copies" I've seen of Van Gogh's sunflower picture. Doesn't matter if ten million exist. Not a single one would bear his genius, no matter how hard someone studied his technique and materials. He put his whole feeling into every single brushstroke as uniquely as if it were his own DNA profile.

[Laminarman]

Yeah Laminarman, what was the purpose of your “funny as hell story”, which is only marginally related to photography and the comical aspects of which hinge almost entirely it being told from a perspective of cultural superiority. There are participants on this forum from all over the world, including Asia and even such far away places as New Jersey. Please keep your insular and provincial sense of humor to yourself.

There was no offense intended. I'm Italian, so yeah, it was tongue in cheek with the Jersey reference (all of my Jersey friends get it without crying about it). And the point of the story was related to prior comments made about crowds in national parks and gawking. I also believe I read somewhere in this thread about "busloads" of certain ethnic groups so if you're going to throw stones, I suggest you get a larger bucket. If you think my comment was about cultural superiority I'll remind you that you do not know me and where I came from. A little bit of thick skin never hurt anyone. I'm off this forum for a while.

[Sfroza]

There was no offense intended. I'm Italian, so yeah, it was tongue in cheek with the Jersey reference (all of my Jersey friends get it without crying about it). And the point of the story was related to prior comments made about crowds in national parks and gawking. I also believe I read somewhere in this thread about "busloads" of certain ethnic groups so if you're going to throw stones, I suggest you get a larger bucket. If you think my comment was about cultural superiority I'll remind you that you do not know me and where I came from. A little bit of thick skin never hurt anyone. I'm off this forum for a while.

Laminarian,

I’m surprised we share a small bit of commonality. I’m third generation Italian. I suspect that is all we share.

From when I could understand, I was told that I should be proud of my ancestry. That I should not participate in thinking about people in terms of race or where their people were from. Most of all I should not use terms that others have attempted to place on me to keep in my place or to disparage me because of my history.
Reading your post reminded me of the remarks I heard when I was growing up and late into adult hood, I suspect that our ages are not far apart. That surprises me all the more with your last post.

When I read about someone seeing a “Chinese man”, I must assume that you actually stopped and asked him where he was from. Right? You didn’t make an assumption just because of his appearance, right? From his looks could he be perhaps from Japan, Laos or anywhere in East Asia. Your post is the second time in less than a month I saw the use of Guidos. Yes, it angered me and I took offence. Not just what I read but what others were reading as well. What do others possibly think of us? Don't even ask why there are so few women participating in the forum.

In your last post, you needed to tell all who you are. There is really no need to do that your #132 post let everyone who had the “privilege” to read it, now knows exactly who you are.

Think before defending racist remarks, think about the company you chose to keep.

Stay or go, it matters not, I’m through with you.


Michael