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Sara Cammeresi

B&W photography —

The following post I submitted to HBL was accepted today. I can thank Jean Binswanger for asking me to condense it slightly to fit their newly imposed 400-word limit as the result is much better, but I can't help but find it ironic that after I resubmitted the shorter version to aid them in their quest to reduce the traffic on HBL, they sent out 18 posts today.

Excerpting Tom Bowden:

I read somewhere that Greek and Roman sculptors in the classical age routinely painted their works in realistic colors.

But as sculptors in the Renaissance and afterward rediscovered, reacquired, and expanded upon the skills and vision of their ancient brethren, they did not choose to revive the art of painting their works. Why?

I am a amateur photographer, and while photography is not an art, I think I can add some insight into this issue.

One of the primary tasks of both artists and photographers is that of selection. They look at reality, choose what elements from it they wish to represent in their artwork or photograph, and respectively recreate or record those aspects of reality which are essential to what they desire to convey, omitting any that are nonessential. An artist can do this literally; a photographer does this to the extent possible given the nature of his craft.

Color is an attribute of entities in reality like any other, and one of the first decisions a photographer must make is whether to record in color or in black-and-white. I usually choose the latter, as often the particular colors I am photographing are nonessential, and to record in color in such a case would smack of naturalism. In my view, color photography should be reserved for instances where the colors are significant in some way.

To concretize, I'll reference two of my own photographs.

This black-and-white photograph is from my sister's wedding reception. The people were normal attendees, and the essence of the photograph is the people's action and liveliness. Had I made this in color, the colors would have been distracting.

I made this photograph in color at a Fourth of July fireworks display. Here the color is essential. The excitement this photograph conveys is through the warm reds and oranges, their glow against the sky, and their contrast against the black and few bits of blue. In black-and-white, this photograph would be cold streaks across the sky as if made by stars or a comet.

If the Greeks painted their sculptures, but no one does any more, it seems to me that someone along the way decided that the colors applied to the sculptures were nonessential and either didn't lend anything aesthetically to the art, or worse, detracted from it.

posted by Sid at 22.44 / 197 in Large Format     [ Comments: 0 ]

Car in hospital —

This morning, I took my car to hospital to have the damage it incurred a few weeks ago repaired. I was then motored to Enterprise whereupon I was at length presented with a Mitsubishi Lancer which would be okay if it weren't for the fact that it has an automatic (and thus inferior) transmission.

I have to expend conscious effort to not hit the brake with my left foot and to silence my internal alarm bells warning me as I decelerate below 15 mph that the car is about to stall and that I'd better declutch.

posted by Sid at 12.07 / 755     [ Comments: 3 ]

Klein bottle Tic-Tac-Toe —

For a challenging twist to a trivial game, try your hand at playing Tic-Tac-Toe on a torus or Klein bottle.

posted by Sid at 12.33 / 772     [ Comments: 0 ]

SWG: worst MMO launch for years —

Star Wars: Galaxies hit the shops today, but you can't play it yet. The game has been plagued by constant technical problems all day, all of the servers are down now, and there is no ETA on when they're going to be back up.

Update: Even the BBC have weighed in on some of the problems.

posted by Sid at 23.35 / 232     [ Comments: 0 ]