Keith Johnson Photographs

Rain.

The rain continues…day IV of the workshop hostage crisis here at Penland, NC.  We got out to shoot for about 2 hours this afternoon but now (9:30pm) it is raining again, a lot.  Clothes from yesterday are still wet.

Day three of the workshop hostage crisis.  36 hours of rain and more promised today, the woodworkers are making biblical references in their measurements, and while NC needs the rain desperately, there are eight photographers aching to to get outside to make Landscape Photographs.  With any luck we may get to Spruce Pine (or Spice Prune as it is known to many) to take in the sights.  More later (with pix)

Penland Schoolof Crafts is about one hour north and west of Ashville, NC in the blue Ridge Mountains near Spruce Pine.  An idyllic place with green and more green and small mountains and trees that won’t quick.  The nights are dark and noisy with screech owls and aktydids.  Searching for landscapes means finding places where the horizon is more than a hundred yards away; not a usual occurance.  The school attracts world class craftspeople in the traditional crafts (in an effort to preserve them) and photography.  I am teaching a digital color workshop without computers at a traditional craft school…go figure.  More later.

Yuma Rocks along with nearly 200 others will be auctioned off to support the PRC Boston’s best photographic concern.  Link to the PRC to see the catalog published soon.  Great work is available, have a look.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/fashion/17photo.html?ref=fashion

Here is a marveous sign of our times and culture, in today’s NY Times Style section.  You don’t like who is in your (family) pictures?  Have them deleted.  You didn’t make that historical event?  Add your image.  It is a marvelous time.

Darius Himes wrote this elegant post The Tools we Use on his blog.  It voices a major component of  my workshops beautifully.  Have a look.

This came across my desktop recently, from the collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.  I was simply unable (under the guise of the Social Landscape) to not share it.  Enjoy.  The Museum is truly a gem of a museum in New Bedford, MA, former center of the whaling trade.

The LX tour of New England included stops at Stowe, VT, Franconia, NH, Gloucester, MA and Newport, RI.  A notable stop for dinner was The Alchemist in Waterbury, VT (20 min south of Stowe).  Brewmaster John Kimmich makes perhaps the best IPA in captivity.  Food is recommendable too.  Definitely worth a stop.  Our stop in Gloucester included a chest deep ocean meeting with my able web master Steve Brettler at smallfish web deisgn.  There are firsts for everything.

Further nattering about feeling young: Newport Jazz Festival dished up 78 year old “Saxophone Colassus” Sonny Rollins.  This event marked his return to the Newport Jazz Festival stage for the first time since 1958.  The man can play and play.  When I see someone like Rollins still doing what he clearly loves and does so well, considering he has been doing it for more than 60 years, it is truly humbling.

The two day affair was marked with terrific weather, emerging talent (Anat Cohen, Guillermo Klein, Chris Potter, Brian Blade) and established musicians (Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Wayne Shorter, Bill Frissell).  It is an extremely well run event in a stunning setting with Fort Adams creating a “natural” amphitheater and Newport Harbor as an awesomely beautiful back drop.

Roman numerals (while difficult to figure out) lend a certain ageless quality.

So I turned 60 on 8/2/08 and I have been entertained by comments and suggestions.  The best being “time to fill your pockets with rocks and walk into the bay.”  Though I am not ready it is a marvelous suggestion.  On 8/2 we saw and listened to Dave Brubeck play with his group and listened to an interview with him and Paquito D’Rivera and I felt rather like a teenager considering he is 87 and managing a pretty full concert schedule.  Oh my.  Last summer he played at Newport Jazz Festival and was terrific.

Yale has in addition to the afore mentioned Abe Morell show a small but worthy show of two pictures by Van Gogh:  Starry Night and Cypresses.   it is a solid art experience to have a timed viewing slot to view two paintings in a yellow room perhaps 15 ft. square with 8 other intimate (new) friends.  Who has time to feel 60?

more soon.