江南遗韵 (Concept Photos)

（之一）

（之二）

This little project was inspired in part by the movie The  Flowers of War, particularly the theme song.  Still largely amorphous, the concept is yet to be fully developed.   But somehow, I feel it needs to have an element of  Georges de la Tour's Repentant Magdalene,  a reflective, meditative mood--something that is currently absent from my concept photos. 

众生之门

Grand Central Station (New York, NY)

Entitled

The 10,000-Hour Rule

Gladwell in his now famed Outliers proposed a "10,000-hour rule," arguing that to become an expert in anything, one has to spend 10,000 hours honing his skills.  Coincidentally,  there is also a "rule" in photography, dating back to the film age, that the first 10,000 photographs are trash.  (If that's true, in the digital age, it is probably not too far from the truth to say that to become a photographer, one has to shoot over 100,000 photos.) Needless to say,  the magic number 10,000 is not unique to any particular profession or culture. The Chinese believe that to succeed in life one has to "walk 10,000 li and read 10,000 scrolls of books."  


Last weekend, I started to dig out some old photos, some scanned years ago.  It's interesting to note that how my life has changed so dramatically over the past few decades.  The number of my photos in the 80s or earlier is probably around 20 or so, in the 90s, hundreds at most.  But I shot over 12,000 photos in the year 2011.  At the professional level, going by the sheer numbers, I probably still have a very long way to go before I can produce a really good photograph that won't embarrass me weeks if not days later.  At the personal level, however, any photos are better than no photos. Those images from my early years, although generally of poor quality, are nevertheless potent in enabling me to relive the precious moments of the past. 


Whatever my future may be, it surely will be made much better if I keep shooting. 

条条大路通Cole Haan?

Cole Haan Front Window (5th Ave. New York, NY)

这是纽约第五大道上的Cole Haan橱窗。它的创意在于用纽约地铁线图标（Ｃ、Ｑ、Ｌ、Ｅ等）来暗示自己遍布纽约。

人模习作

写下“人模习作”这个题目后，不知为何突然想起“鬼模怪样”这句话。

Portrait in Adorarma Studio  ( New York, NY)

Lighting: main light, rim light and reflector
Camera setting:  70mm lens at F4, 1/400s, ISO400, manual mode

More shots can be found here.  More information about the model is available here.

高丽风

纽约时装周将于本周开始。南韩时装摄影师Kim Kyung Soo在几年前有个“满月的故事”
系列，体现韩国中秋节传统服饰。他的作品特点是用色淡雅清新，构图简洁空灵，与欧美时装摄影构成鲜明对比。

满月的故事  by Kim Kyung Soo

From the remote past..

Source: Pictorial Photography in America 1920

Photo or Painting

Here's a quick compilation of a few low-resolution elements.   The effect is the opposite that of some photos depicting a real hand holding a pencil sketch in them.

Fading Demarcations...

As the line between reality and perception becomes increasingly blurry, demarcations between various arts --artificial to begin with--are also fading.  Photos with reasonably good contrast can now bee easily turned into paintings or drawings using software (above and below). This, of course, is nothing new.  But never before has such transformation so readily available.  I think many interesting art works may be created by simply using this function in combination with a few others.  

No Need to Know Your Law (School) to Be a Lawyer

In February 1957, Harvey Wax,  a young man aspiring to become a lawyer, received a rejection letter from "Princeton University's Law School" he had applied for earlier.  Mr. Wax subsequently tried his luck elsewhere, with Harvard's Law School, and was admitted.  He later indeed became a lawyer.

Source: Letters of Note
Image:,Bill Shapiro's excellent book, Other People's Rejection Letters.

Who Protects the Poor?

Is Our Legal System Still Dependable for Those at the Bottom?

I snapped this shot on my way home from a seminar by Cliff Muantner, whom I described in my blog in the past.  I was surprised that this photo came out nicely. (Nex 5N 1/13s/f5.6/ISO3200)

The philosophies and techniques shared by Cliff at the seminar are wonderful.  I cannot wait to try out some of the methodologies.