Category: Places

Today I visited the Manzanar “war relocation center” near Lone Pine, California. It was one of ten camps where the US Government held 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. Two thirds of these people were American citizens, many born in this country and yet they were deprived of their liberty and property without due process.

I felt very sad visiting here, similar to how I felt at Auschwitz. No, Manzanar did not have gas chambers or the brutality of Auschwitz, but in both places people lost their liberty and dignity.

I knew Japanese Americans who had been interned but knew little of their story until I purchased a copy of “Manzanar” by Ansel Adams.  He photographed the camp in 1943 while it was still occupied. He said of his work:

“The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and despair by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment.”

I have great respect for Ansel’s Manzanar images and his views on the internment because it was not popular to defend the “Japs” at that time.

Fortunately he was not alone in speaking up, there were others such as newspaper editor Walter Woodward and librarian Clara Breed, also the Quakers were vocal critics of the internment policy.

Surprisingly however, there were very few politicians who stood up to decry this situation, but one who did was Governor Carr of Colorado who said:

“If you harm them, you must harm me.”

Unfortunately his continued support for the Japanese ended his promising political career. But what a wonderful legacy: here was a man who would not trade his honor for popularity or office.

Visiting Manzanar reinforced my commitment to not allow such tragedies to happen again. In the face of injustice and overwhelming popular opinion for the same, I hope I can be as principled and vocal as Ansel Adams and Governor Carr.

Cole

P.S. I created two images at Manzanar today, two are above, one below.

Iceland No. 1  –  Berufjördður  – 2013

Iceland was incredible; the land, the people, the experiences…all of it including a harrowing ride in winds of over 130 mph. My car was severely damaged as flying rocks blew out my windows and sandblasted my car. At the time my only concern was keeping the car upright in the strongest winds I have ever encountered.

But what a great story and memories I now have!

I went to Iceland to create new images, but truthfully if all I came home with are these memories, then the trip was a success. Fortunately, I do think I’ll have a couple images that I like, including “Iceland No. 1” above.

~

On another note, the Death Valley Workshop in January is sold out. Sorry.

But if you’re living in the Colorado area, I am conducting a one day workshop on “Cole’s Rule of Thirds” at the Center for Fine Art Photography. This will be held on Saturday November 9th, 2013 and you can learn more about it at http://www.c4fap.org/education-events/ 

I’ll also be speaking at Click! Camera Club in Denver on Tuesday, October 1st at 6pm. They will be meeting at Englewood Camera, 5855 S. Broadway in Littleton, Colorado.

Thanks to all for your support!

Cole

I was recently in Saint Petersburg, Russia visiting Peterhof Palace, which is Peter the Great’s summer home.

While walking around the grounds I saw this line of trees that caught my attention. They were still bare from winter and had been neatly trimmed to look like giant lollipops. They caught my fancy and I took about an hour to photograph them from every conceivable angle and composition…except one.

As I was leaving I took one shot on my iPhone to email family and to put in our scrapbook. This iPhone shot was different from the other images I took with my Canon, it was a wide angle shot of all the trees.

When I got home and reviewed the images, I was disappointed because there wasn’t a single one that I liked.  But then I remembered the iPhone image…

This is the original iPhone color shot and as you can see, the trees are just a small part of the image. I never imagined that an iPhone image, and one with the subject this small, could ever be made into a decent image.   But just for the fun of it, I opened it in Photoshop and processed it.

First I converted to a 16 bit image and into black and white.

Then using curves, I adjusted the image to appear as a silhouette.

I cropped it into a pano.

And removed the people from the scene (it just felt better without them).

Finally I burned down the sky for this resulting simple image.

Because the image was created with a relatively low resolution iPhone, I was worried how it would look when printed.  But because it looked good on the screen, I made a 15 inch wide test print and it looked great! I was very impressed with how good an iPhone image could look at this size.  

Here are a few thoughts I had about this experience:

It reinforced my belief that you don’t need the best equipment to create great images.  Sure, we’d all prefer to have the best equipment, but there are other ingredients that are much more important.

When you find a great shot, shoot every conceivable angle, composition and exposure. I know some people that believe you should take your time, carefully consider the composition and then take only one shot…but I personally don’t want to travel halfway around the world only to discover that my one shot missed the mark! My approach is to take many shots and reduce the chance of coming home empty handed.

Vision works best when it directs the shot and the processing.  However in this case my vision missed the shot but was able to make up for it later during processing.  Vision, no matter when it occurs, is a good thing.

While I’m not planning on pursuing iPhoneography, I sure am grateful that I had this one iPhone shot!

Cole

If I were to ask you to list five great locations for creating great images, what would you list? Here’s my list that might be typical:

1. Yosemite
2. Iceland
3. Big Sur
4. Japan
5. The African Plains

These beautiful locations would almost guarantee a great image! Think of the great work done here: Yosemite and the iconic images of Ansel Adams. When I think of Iceland will I forever see the incredible iceberg images of Camile Seaman in my head. Or how about the work of Edward Weston in the Big Sur area or Michael Kenna’s incredible minimalistic work from Japan. And Africa…could anything be more definitive than the work of Nick Brandt?

But do you know what would happen if I were to visit these locations, say Yosemite for example?  I’d be looking for the spots where Ansel created those famous images so that I could recreate them for myself. And while I might be able to create a pretty nice image, it would neither be original or be as good as Ansel’s.  Remember, Ansel has already done Ansel and I’m not going to do him better!

And so it begs the question; do I need to photograph at places such as Yosemite, Big Sur or Africa in order to create great images?  Can’t great images also be found in ordinary places?  

Yes they can.  I believe that ordinary places have just as many image opportunities as the exotic places we all dream of visiting.  So let me suggest another list of locations where you can  create great images:

1. Your neighbor’s yard
2. Your bedroom
3. A greenhouse
4. A hotel
5. In your car

They don’t sound very exciting when compared to that first list, so let’s take a look at why I’ve chosen these ordinary and even mundane locations. First, they are very accessible: no passport needed, no time off from work and no travel expenses.

But there’s another more important advantage: Ansel and Seaman and Weston and Kenna and Brandt have not photographed there and so you don’t have their images floating around in your head. You are free to see these locations in a fresh and unique way, and you are free to be the first to create great images there!

Here are some examples of my images from those very “ordinary” locations:

My neighbor’s yard.

My bedroom.

A greenhouse.

A hotel.

In my car.

~

Great images do not need great locations…or perhaps better said; great images can come from everyday and ordinary great locations!

Yes, I have traveled to many exciting locations around the world and and I’ve created images there that I’m proud of, but I’m just as proud of my images from these “ordinary” locations. 

Here are a few more examples of images from ordinary locations:

At my feet.

A friend.

Something my daughter made.

At a flea market.

Before my son’s senior prom.

The river in my town.

On the way to work.

My backyard.

At a local tree nursery.

On the side of the road.

At a family get together.

Along the railroad tracks.

At my kitchen table.

In my home office.

Along the river in my hometown.

~

The “key” to a great image is not location, but your Vision and your ability to see differently than those who have gone before you.

It’s a hard thing to do, but it is the key.

Cole

Isn’t the iPhone incredible?  Beautiful 180 degree panoramas created in the field in seconds!

Today I visited the Armagosa sand dunes, near Beatty, NV.  I was the only one there and the dunes were pretty clean.

Here’s a short video of my visit.

And a 45 second time-lapse video.

Cole

Here is a very short time-lapse video showing me at work at the Devil’s Golf Course.

Cole

I’m leaving for my annual Death Valley trip in the morning.  I’m going for two weeks this year, a little longer than most because I’m also hopping over to L.A. to attend the Auschwitz Liberation Day remembrance at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance.

What will I do for two weeks?

The first thing I’m going to do is enjoy being alone with my thoughts.

My goal is to clear my head of all the day to day clutter that keeps me preoccupied with relatively unimportant stuff.

I hope to continue on my quest to “see differently.”  Not differently from everyone else, but differently from myself.

Would I love to come home with a dozen of good  images?  Yes, but I’d rather come home with a single great one.

One that I am in love with.

One that I am proud of.

That’s not too much to hope for, is it?

Cole

I just spent the most wonderful five days in the San Francisco area.  I was warmly received by the Palo Alto Camera Club and then spent some time in the City where my wife and I enjoyed the sights and some fantastic food. Then we spent a day walking on and around the Golden Gate Bridge with spectacularly perfect weather.  

While on the bridge I spied this Monolith which I wanted to photograph.  I spent several hours trying to find a vantage point where I could photograph it alone, separated from the city.  However due to a restricted area under the bridge, I was unable to find such a shot and gave up. But I’ve learned that when the ideal conditions do not exist, you should look for other opportunities in the non-ideal conditions.

Instead of photographing this Monolith alone as I had done with all of the other images (https://colethompsonphotography.com/portfolios/series/monoliths/) I decided to include a man made structure to show the contrast between the two.

I like how the contrast between nature and man works in this image to make it stronger. 

Cole

I’m back from my annual retreat in Bandon, Oregon. It’s a very small town and I think it’s the most beautiful and unique spot on the entire Oregon coast. I go there each year for about 10 days to photograph, to be alone and to contemplate. I found some wonderful new dunes on this trip and the Gods of wind and weather smiled favorably upon me. Here is a new “Dunes of Nude” image I created while on this trip.

~

I mentioned that one of the reasons I go to Bandon each year is to be alone and think.  Here are some of the thoughts I had while on this trip:

• It’s amazing that birds can fly.
• Driving alone for miles on the beach is great fun.
• Life is very short.  The older you get, the shorter it seems.
• Fog can come in very, very quickly.
• I don’t trust people who don’t like dogs.
• As much as I love photography, I’m not sure how important it is in the larger scheme of things.
• Why do we spend so much of our lives caring what others think?
• Halibut fish and chips; much more expensive than Cod, but worth it.
• Teenage daughters are difficult to understand.
• Two “thumbs up!” to El Sombrero in Coos Bay, Oregon.
•  

~

Yesterday I had my interview with Brooks Jensen for LensWork Extended. It’s always nice to talk with Brooks because he’s so down to earth and pragmatic.  But in truth I always feel intimidated because of my lack of knowledge of art and “art talk.”  I am unschooled in such things and simply know what I like.

~ 

Tomorrow (Saturday) I’m off on another trip and hope to see some new images. I say “see” because I know the images are there, it really is just a matter of being able to see them!

Aloha.

Here’s a new video featuring my Death Valley images. They will be appearing somewhere special in the near future. 

Click Here to Watch the Video

Here’s a hint; it’s a black and white publication.

Cole