Thoughts from Not-So-Happy Valley

Today's post is not photography related. But it's something I must share, and it relates to my vision of the world around us.

With the news coming out of State College, Pennsylvania, these past several days have been very, very difficult days for my wife and I.

Words usually come fairly easy to me, but today my thoughts and sentences are trapped in a whirlpool of two primary emotions: sadness and anger.

Sadness that such horrific crimes have been (allegedly, of course) committed; sadness that they have dragged Penn State’s reputation through the mud; sadness that someone whom I believe is one of the few truly great men of our time -- Joe Paterno -- is being pulled down in the process.

Of course Paterno’s not perfect and of course he’s not without blame. But good people can and do make bad mistakes; that doesn’t (in my mind, at least) negate all the tremendous good they’ve done with the majority of their lives.

I’m not referring to Joe’s wins and losses on the football field. I’m talking about bigger things in life -- his molding and mentoring of young people, ensuring they get an education, running a clean (NCAA violation-wise) program, donating tons of money to good causes, inspiring others to overcome challenges and be the best they can be, insisting on substance over flash and values over vanity; raising a close-knit family, and believing his responsibilities as an educator and leader take precedence over his role of being just another football coach.

Mixed with my sadness is palpable anger -- anger that Sandusky’s selfish sickness could taint an entire reputation (the University’s as well as Paterno’s) and especially anger over the news media’s reaction and obvious glee in toppling someone from a pedestal they -- not he -- built. I’m much more ashamed I’ve called myself a journalist than ashamed of my loyalty towards Penn State (which, as some of you know, I didn’t attend but was instantly captured by its charms and a certain co-ed who introduced me to them).

I don’t know if you’re a Twitter follower -- I’ve unfortunately become addicted to it as my primary source of news -- but the vitriol of sports “journalists” on Twitter and the blogosphere towards Paterno has been so out of proportion to his actual role in the mess that I believe the media reaction -- not Paterno’s actions or inactions -- has been the second most criminal act next to Sandusky’s horrific behavior. Not a single one of us -- least of all the media -- knows the whole story. Not a single one of us truly knows what we would have done if we were in Paterno’s position.

But in reading the holier-than-thou coverage, you could easily believe that today’s media have sole dominion of the keys to moral certainty; that the crimes themselves were committed by Paterno, and that Sandusky was not 12 years removed from actively coaching for Paterno. Most writers and broadcasters -- 99% of whom have never met Paterno personally -- confidently assumed Paterno was motivated by the same things that motivate them: fame, money, prestige, adulation, power. It’s inconceivable to them that other less headline worthy factors -- including loyalty, trust (yes, perhaps blinded by 30 years of friendship), and a core belief in the good of mankind -- could have been involved.

This is our 20th anniversary of being PSU football season ticket holders. As usual, my wife and I will be heading to State College this weekend -- for what we always knew would be the final home game of the season…then what we thought would be Joe’s final game in the stadium he literally and figuratively built…and now what we know will be the first Penn State game without Joe’s coaching presence since five years before we were born (hint: we're members of the middle years of the Baby Boom).

We have spent many of our happiest moments attending games and tailgating with family and friends there. Absolutely due to the positive, uplifting, Penn-State-fans-are-never-strangers atmosphere Paterno and his teams fostered in that stadium, we met two of our dearest friends in the seats right behind us; they in turn introduced us to their dear family and friends, and we then introduced them to ours. Over the years, that happy confluence of seating arrangements and introductions has led directly to cherished memories of blissful tailgates, other Centre County adventures, weekend road trips, a European vacation, the founding of a virtual Fantasy Football community we call the Happy Valley Athletic Conference, and so much more.

Last home game, we helped a group of PTSD-suffering veterans from the local VA hospital to attend -- simply to thank them for their service and share the unforgettable experience of attending a Penn State football game (for most of the vets, it was their first). Joe Paterno’s living example of selfless outreach inspired us to do that. When we helped a different group of disabled vets last year, they saw a dramatic come-from-behind PSU victory and Joe’s historic 400th career win. This year, the vets saw another dramatic come-from-behind victory and Joe’s historic 409th -- and, now we know, final – win that gave him the most ever in Division 1 college football.

I’d like to think God had something to do with the incredible, almost surreal outcomes of those two games.

I’d like to think He was doing it for the vets, perhaps even for Joe, knowing what was to come.

And I’d like to think and pray God is listening to my following appeal:

May our children and their children be safe, may truth be the ultimate national champion, may sadness and anger wash away, may justice prevail here on earth as well as in heaven, and -- despite all the unimaginable events of this past week -- may our Valley be Happy once more.

Carnival Memories

Antique Light Pre-Set in Lightroom

Urbana Carnival - Original Image

I must be in a sepia-kinda mood. Several of the digital images I’ve made this summer look best, I think, in monochrome with just a touch of coloration.

One example is this spinning amusement ride I photographed in July at the Urbana Fireman’s Carnival. Initially, the cotton-candy colors of the original image grabbed me -- then I began to experiment with several monochrome pre-sets in Adobe Lightroom. My favorite was called “Antique Light”. This one captures the nostalgic, somewhat unsettling feeling I get at the carnival these days. The event is now in its 34th year, and -- hard for me to believe -- my wife and I have wandered through its tacky charms for nearly three-quarters of those years. But what was once a simple summer diversion in a rural field behind the firehouse is now a good carney’s toss from one of the densest suburban populations in Maryland. As a result, the carnival attracts an interesting jumble of patrons -- some in Skoal-embossed jeans and Red Wings while others parade in their new Hollister hoodies. Somehow the carnival survives; I just wonder for how much longer.

Technical details: Canon 30D, Canon EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens, Bogen 3205 tripod with Kirk Enterprises BH-1 ballhead, wired remote shutter cord, Exposure of 1 second at f/22.

I’m curious – which version do you like better?

Reflections on Two Regional Photo Shows, Part 2

Gentle Tiger

The other regional show I visited recently was the 17th Annual Tri-State Photography Exhibition, sponsored by the Allegany Arts Council in Cumberland, MD. (Side note: the scenic western Maryland city ironically is NOT located in the Cumberland Valley and bears no formal relationship with the annual photo salon in Hagerstown).

I was fortunate to have two of my own images – "Lindau Harbor View" and "Gentle Tiger" – among the 51 prints accepted for the show from about 175 entries. What struck me most about the Cumberland show was the smaller proportion of obviously digitally enhanced images (compared to this year’s Hagerstown show) coupled with a larger proportion of what I’d term relatively avant-garde presentation styles – at least compared to “traditional” photo exhibits.

About 75% of the entries had the usual matted/framed look, but the others were a visual buffet of unusual formats: some unframed, oversized, dimensional, or printed on non-traditional media such as canvas or metal (or at least metal-looking) substrates. A couple of images were hung, frameless, from rods and cords in the style of textile art. No doubt this visual variety was stimulated by the Arts Council’s flexible rules – the only limits were that entries had to be wired for hanging and not exceed 48” in any direction.

I benefited from this flexibility by being able to enter a 20” x 30” wall-mount, full-frame (unmatted) version of Gentle Tiger. Most shows won’t accept a print that big. I used the online photo service MPIX to prepare the image using what they call their “standout” format, which mounts the print on 1.5” thick (but surprisingly lightweight) Gator foamboard with either black or white trim around the edges. Other framing services might call this a box frame. The MPIX service is not cheap -- $110 for the 20” x 30” size – but the impact of that size in the right setting is worth every penny, IMHO.

Unfortunately, because of weather delays to the original entry deadlines, the Cumberland show will be on view only for a short time at the Council’s Saville Gallery at 9 North Centre Street in downtown Cumberland. The show closes March 6. Catch it if you can – it’s one of the more visually exciting juried photo shows I’ve seen in some time.

Reflections on Two Regional Photo Shows, Part 1

Passages by Marshall Dupuie

I visited two excellent photo shows on Saturday – both displaying the juried results of photo contests held within 60 miles of one another.

Today I’ll focus on the 77^th Annual Cumberland Valley Salon at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, MD. In a later post I’ll discuss the other show, the 17^th Annual Tri-State Photography Exhibition, sponsored by the Allegany Arts Council in my hometown of Cumberland, MD.

I consider the Cumberland Valley Photo Salon show the “gold standard” of all photography shows in the Frederick region, not only because of its amazing longevity (77 years ago – in 1933 – Ansel Adams had just opened his first art and photography gallery in San Francisco and modeled it after Stieglitz’s Gallery 291 in New York) but more importantly because it consistently attracts the best work of fine art photographers in central and western Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and the panhandle of West Virginia. Another reason for my regard is the venue itself. The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts is a hidden gem for visual art lovers. Located on a small lake in a scenic city park, the museum boasts an unexpected but wonderful permanent collection of paintings and sculpture from artists whose names you normally wouldn’t associate with a small industrial town in Maryland.

I didn’t enter any photos in this year’s Cumberland Valley competition, but I’m proud to say that the winner of the 2010 Best of Show award is a good friend and mentor of mine, Marshall Dupuie of Frederick. His winning photo – called “Passages” – is a prime example of using digital technology to elevate an already artful image (the layers of colorful doors shot at an old government building in Europe) to the sublime. Marshall says he exhibited the original image for a while and then later was inspired to add the ghostly images of the elderly lady and the infant.

About a third of the 40 images in Hagerstown showed obvious signs of digital enhancement, which I’m neither condemning nor praising. But I find that percentage fascinating considering it was just a few years back when the Cumberland Valley Salon and similar juried shows wrestled whether to even accept digitally enhanced entries. Now they are common and hang with relatively “straight” images with hardly a debate from anyone.

I personally think that’s the way it should be – at least for fine art photography (photojournalism is another matter). The final image – no matter how it’s created – is the artist’s personal statement and should stand by and for itself. A landscape photograph that stirs me emotionally is just as valid whether the maker carefully plotted sunrise times and hiked 20 miles to be at the right spot at the right time – or skillfully composited a mid-day shot with another day’s sunrise using Photoshop.

If you’ve haven’t yet had the opportunity to visit the Cumberland Valley Photo Salon, I urge you to do so – it’s up until March 14. Be sure to leave sufficient time to explore the museum’s other galleries as well. If you’ve seen the show, I would enjoy hearing your comments about your favorite images.

Urbana Show Extended

"This Magic Moment" -- my 30-print show at the Urbana Regional Library in Urbana, Maryland -- has been extended through the end of October 2009. If you haven't had an opportunity to visit the show yet, please drop by.