Loyal readers, you are forewarned. This is going to be an old guy's post with no apologies.We wouldn't think to apologize for our age at 25, so why at 71? Probably because we don't want to admit to diminished capacity. While I freely admit that's true, look at the increased wisdom, perspective and sheer amount of experience that rides along with seniority.  I think I've got that (but I may be senile), so here goes.

In NYC for a few days last week I am struck by how many people live here, how friendly New Yorkers can be, how it all works somehow, how dirty it is, how it seems everyone is plugged in, on their phones, wearing earphones and walking very fast. I know, old guy stuff. One of the things that happens when you age is that your world becomes smaller, closes in to be fewer experiences in a smaller sphere. Well, going to New York is completely expanding, at least for me.

Photographing here can be frustrating as NY has a way of making your pictures seem insignificant and/or touristy. NY is overwhelming to someone like me who gets here only occasionally. Always exciting it is also enervating, as it speaks to a faster pace, to a relentless mass of humanity in a hurry, meaning it seems you have to join the wave. I am always exhausted by the time I leave.

I took the Acela train down and back from Boston, a very nice ride. A little over three hours: no airport, no security, no adjusting to the altitude, no bad air, no abusive public transportation to get into the city, and a reasonably good meal. Plus, something to look as you ride along. I made pictures on the way down and back from Boston.

I claim no originality on these at all for friend Michael Hintlian (website here) is the king of this and it is through his work that I understood the possibilities in working this way.

I love New York.

After 911 things changed for many photographers. Working in a large format in Europe became much more difficult for Americans. There were some tense times att eh airport. Security would invariably want to get inside my 25 sheet 8 x 10 film boxes. They would say "open that". This seldom went well. 

Worse, even if I did get to Italy with my film intact, I ran the risk of having exposed film inspected and ruined on the way back!

Digital changed all that. By 2005 I was beginning to photograph digitally and was teaching in Venice in a new program I designed of a study abroad for Northeastern University students. 

Many students, total chaos and a great time. And heavy stress. What if I lost a student? What if a student got pregnant?  I photographed digitally in color those summers in Venice. 

This was a frustrating time, as putting in major effort wasn't resulting in pictures that I felt I could do much with. File sizes were small and so large prints weren't possible, at least in any real quality. This became a self-fulfilling prophecy: my work wasn't that strong because I didn't fully commit because I knew the quality wasn't going to be very high.

This one, above, is from 2005 and was the last year I worked in film, from a series called Vignole, a small island in Venice's lagoon that is mostly agricultural and not tourism-based. The prints were made by scanning the negatives and making inkjet prints. This image shows a marked difference in terms of investment, I think.

By 2009  I was fully committed to working digitally and had switched to using a full frame sensor. That year I was on a sabbatical leave and spent the fall living in Italy, retracing steps made earlier while teaching in the 90's.

1992 in 8 x 10

2009

I made comparative photographs that spanned 15 years or so.

2009

1993

Now I was using photography differently but also using Italy differently. No longer satisfied with just a single frame to speak about a place but working to compare two different times and visual sensibilities. This way of working meant that I was searching in 2009 for the same places I'd photographed in the 90's.

1991

2009

For this one in Trieste, I drove through this large city for hours to find the same place I'd photographed in 1991.

Next up? Italy 3

Since my last notice on this show coming up at the New England School of Photography in its new digs in Waltham in January the content of the exhibition has changed somewhat. The show is now called Neal Rantoul: Iceland and is work from this past summer's time teaching.

After a one week workshop in Iceland at the Baer Art Center finished in early August we left Hofsos in a rented car and drove the Ring Road for most of its route east and then south back to Reykjavik. I made photographs along the way. Those, with several from the cliff face at The Cape comprise the show.  This is an exhibition of my landscape photographs.

Here are a few from the show:

I am so excited to be able to bring this work to you. We are staying with a mostly consistent size for the photographs shown: framed at 46 by 34 inches.

Here are the details:

New England School of Photography

Neal Rantoul: Iceland

The Garner Center for Photographic Exhibitions

 274 Moody Street Waltham, MA 02453 

 Call for open hours: 617-438-1897

January 8-February 9, 2018 

Reception Tuesday, January 16, 6-7:30 pm 

Artist Talk Friday, January 19, 1:30 pm

Please come to the reception January 16. I look forward to seeing you there.

I have a new camera. If you've read the blog before you know it isn't very often that I discuss equipment. Mostly it seems not so significant to me what kind of camera is used. But there are shifts occurring once again in the industry and this new camera, a Nikon D850, is one of the new tools in digital photography that is moving us ahead.

Edgartown, MA

Although it is difficult to show how good images are online, this 300% crop shows little noise and is quite detailed:

My previous camera, a Nikon D810, had been my primary picture maker for several years. A very good camera, it made files that I could count on:  for quality, for color, for tonality, dynamic range and for sharpness, even at quite big sizes. It wasn't perfect but it never failed me and got the job done, really all I could ask for in a camera in which to make my art.

Since I've only had the new camera a week and made just a few prints, I can't speak to its inherent goodness yet. But it feels right and its MP size is significantly larger, which should allow bigger prints at higher fidelity. Odd that we are so very dependent on a tool to make our pictures, but that's photography.  In my analog days, I was dependent on three tools to make my pictures. Early on the Rollei SL66 was front and center in the 70's, then the Superwide Hasselblad. Then I was wedded to the Toyo Field 8 x 10 for 25 years, connected at the hip to a large, cumbersome and very heavy camera and the three lenses I used ( and the tripod to mount it on!). Now I can get virtually as high a quality image with a camera I can hold in my hand and sling over my shoulder. Dreams do come true sometimes.

Current thought seems to be that large chip DSLR  days are numbered and I can believe that. The D850 is too large and heavy. I also use a full chip mirrorless Sony camera (A7r MK ll) and find it very nice to travel with. It is not as refined as the Nikons but nevertheless capable of wonderful files.

Simply enough, the bar is now very high in terms of the equipment we can use. We are at a high level of maturity in digital imaging and the devices are increasingly sophisticated and impressive in the quality of the results. Is the hype we are barraged with everytime a new camera is announced a true guide of its significance? No, but this one, the Nikon, and the new Sony A7r MK lll are genuine steps forward, I believe.

I have already learned, for instance, that in order to capture everything at the highest of quality you must make sure this new Nikon is held steady. Bring your A game to this tool for it requires it. Marginal quality lenses will not cut it either.

So, my apologies for coming down to earth to speak about equipment in this blog. I assume most of the photographs I'll make for a while will be from this new camera. I am looking forward to sharing new work made from the D850 Nikon with you.

Stay tuned.

BTW: I'll have prints of these images and others at the Allston Open Studios coming up in December.  Hope to see you there.

I am in California for a few days this week visiting my sister, who lives in Berkeley.

We are headed out to have a picnic lunch today at Mt Tamalpais, which you can drive up. From the top you can see all of San Francisco Bay, down to Marin, a good deal of Richmond and down towards Oakland, etc. It is a glorious place with a trail the runs right around its circumference. 

I have photographed quite a bit at Mt Tam over the years, including the original "Mountain Work" series made in the late 80's:

that slowly burned off as I walked the trail: