Waves wash over rocks along the back shore of Gloucester, MA. Fujinon 10-24 (.3 s @ f14 ISO 100)
Running photo tours along the seacoast can be tricky at times. I am constantly warning participants about the dangers of getting to close to the water as waves can pull you in. The other day I was out shooting in one of my favorite spots which I know quite well but can be dangerous if one is not paying attention. It was well after high tide but the waves were still rolling in as the tide went out. I thought I was well out of the way of any incoming waves and had placed my camera and tripod in a spot down low to catch waves slowly coming in over a rock in front of me. I should have known the best shot would be the one where the wave comes in over the rock and soaks me up to my ankles. A rogue wave came in and blasted over the rock in front of me and got me real good but left the camera dry. Now if I had my “Wellies” on, as the Brits would say, this would not have been a problem. This brings up one of my maxims of shooting water, if you’re not in the water your images will not have any impact. So next time I will remember to bring my boots!
A well used ditty bag sits as an example of how it’s done during the Ditty Bag Workshop held at the Waterline Center of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex on Sunday morning. KIRK R. WILLIAMSON/ photo. 3/31/19
This past weekend I had the chance to photograph people making ditty bags to hold their sailing tools. I wish I had been able to stick around for the end but it was still fun talking with people and learning why they were making these canvas bags meant for holding tools used by sailors for eons.
The Ditty Bag Workshop held at the Waterline Center of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex on Sunday morning was a big hit as a large group of participants joined in to make their own ditty bags. KIRK R. WILLIAMSON/ photo. 3/31/19
I’m always looking for an interesting angle to give an overall and this was it. The Waterline Center at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum is a great place with all sorts of cool things, like boats hanging from the ceiling.
Susannah Winder directed the Ditty Bag Workshop held at the Waterline Center of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex on Sunday morning. KIRK R. WILLIAMSON/ photo. 3/31/19
Susannah was doing a great job of helping everyone out and in the photo above was talking about how the ditty bag is stitched together.
Steve Jones works on his sewing skills during the Ditty Bag Workshop held at the Waterline Center of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex on Sunday morning. KIRK R. WILLIAMSON/ photo. 3/31/19
Steve and his friends were making do sewing for canvas for the first time and having a great time doing it.
Caitland Peterson, age 12, left and her mom Bethany Peterson work on sewing a seam during the Ditty Bag Workshop held at the Waterline Center of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex on Sunday morning. KIRK R. WILLIAMSON/ photo. 3/31/19
Caitland and her mom Bethany were going through the sewing process together and having a ball doing it.
Christopher Campbell, left, and Janelle Bannon work on seeing their ditty bags during the Ditty Bag Workshop held at the Waterline Center of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum in Essex on Sunday morning. KIRK R. WILLIAMSON/ photo. 3/31/19
Varying between wide angle and tele long shots breaks up the perspective and gives the viewer a different look at virtually the same thing. I wish I could have stuck around to see the finished product to really end this story.
The B&W images that Adams created back many years ago have always generated an emotional response in me. In my college years I started reading about him and looking at his images. His books were then not far behind. I started reading his Camera series with much of it over my head. But, it was Adams after all and there was no better photographer in my mind. His work really started me on my career path.
All that being said, I have probably seen most of Adams’ images either in books, calendars, or exhibit. So the idea of a new exhibit was exciting to me. What more could they do? The last exhibit I attended was the Adams exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. There were only a few of his most famous images plus some very large murals. It was underwhelming. I was disappointed. So this new one was exciting plus it was the MFA in Boston.
I wish I had a photo of it but as we went down stairs to the exhibit the emotions started to come back remembering my close connection to many of his images. The first thing to greet you before you go in is a giant mural of Adams atop his woody in the 40’s planning a shot with his 8×10 view camera. I have seen it before but not this large. My emotional connection came flooding back. There was the tall skinny Adams in his younger years at the height of his image making – wow!
Then my wife and I went into the exhibit and started to see that not only were Adams’ images present but also the works of other photographers (like Muybrige and Watkins) that influenced him. Then also contemporary photographers rounded out the exhibit.
A collection of small Adams prints on display.
The MFA has in it’s collection some 450 prints by Adams which is part of the Lane Collection and these are the images used for this exhibit. They are mixed with works by other photographers both contemporary and before and during Adam’s time. Thus the title Ansel Adams, In Our Time.
Overall the experience is pretty good but the prints from the Lane Collection are not as I expected. Many are old and small and the larger ones seem to be either printed too deep or under lit in the exhibition. Thus a disappointment to me. One of my favorites is Mt. Williamson (a great name) from Manzanar, CA. The print was in pretty good shape and a pleasure to look at.
Mt. Williamson
I wish this image was larger than 11×14 but what can you do. I have seen some of the contemporary work and the pano’s with old images inserted were pretty cool. The large burned forest images were also nice. They went along with Adam’s image of the same.
The work I was most distraught over was that of Catherine Opie. They were two large extremely out of focus images which were done that way on purpose. Thus to show how recognizable certain areas of Yosemite were because of the images Adam’s had made. In my opinion a complete waste of wall space. They even had a video interview with the “artist” sorry, another waste of time. I walked on. Some other large works were double exposures or layered images of recognizable scenes for Yosemite (I think) might have been the Snake River in Wyoming.
Overall the experience was pretty good but not what I expected.
As you walk out you are forced into the gift shop – to be expected I guess. Then you get to see one of my all time favorite images made by Adams is a 20 ft. high mural. Wow it was so cool. I made my own interpretation of it.
Pines in snow
I absolutely love this photograph of his. It was insane to see it the size of an enormous wall. Then we were off to the cafeteria for an expensive lunch. The Adam’s imagery was all around us.
You could not escape it. This image here of the Snake River and the Grand Teton’s is one of my all time fav’s.
Folks enjoying an expensive lunch.
The exhibit goes until Feb. 24, 2019. So go on in and enjoy and make up your own mind as to what you think of it. As a huge Adam’s fan boy I was not overly impressed. The theme was an ok idea but poorly executed. Why they had to go find the weirdest contemporary imagery to go with it is beyond me. The influenced contemporary photographers should have been represented by work that clearly shows Adam’s influence not bizarre imagery. The work of Muybridge and Watkins that influenced Adam’s – great idea!
I think you get the picture – sorry for the pun, couldn’t resist.
