mattpettengill.net

A couple days ago I received a message through Flickr from the Managing Editor of Schmap Guides letting me know that one of my photographs was selected for inclusion in their guide for Portland Oregon. The specific picture they chose was the following snap-shot I took at the Bridgeport Brewery.

This picture is licensed under a Creative Commons “Attribution-No Derivative” license, so I won’t receive a fee. Considering it’s just a quick snap I took while out for lunch, I’m happy to have some recognition, and hopefully some additional traffic to my Flickr profile.

The email from the Managing Editor has more information on the photographs visibility on Schmap:

:: Schmap: Portland Photo Inclusion

Hi Matt,

I am delighted to let you know that one of your photos with
a Creative Commons license has been selected for inclusion
in the newly released sixth edition of our Schmap Portland
Guide:

BridgePort Brew Pub
http://www.schmap.com/portland/nightlife_thepearldistrict/p=94289/i=94289_7.jpg

If you use an iPhone or iPod touch, then this same link
will take you directly to your photo in the iPhone version
of our guide. On a desktop computer, you can still see
exactly how your photo is displayed and credited in the
iPhone version of our guide at:

BridgePort Brew Pub
http://www.schmap.com/?m=iphone#uid=portland&sid=nightlife_thepearldistrict&p=94289&i=94289_7

Finally, if you have a blog, you might also like to check
out the customizable widgetized version of our Schmap
Portland Guide, complete with your published photo:

http://www.schmap.com/guidewidgets/p=95681973N00/c=SJ20252053

Please enjoy the guide!

Best regards,

Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides

I spent his past weekend in Baxter State Park. This was a trip to spend a couple of night camps camping with friends, and hike to Baxter Peak—Maine’s highest elevation—at the top of Katahdin.

Friday afternoon we stuffed my car with gear and the bodies of the five people making the trip, and headed up to the Park from Augusta. After three hours of travel, we finally arrived at the park gate to check in. At this time we were informed that the trails at the top of Katahdin were closed due to the presence of snow and ice. (I was not able to see this clearly on the drive in because the top of the mountain was obscured in clouds). Although it was only the first weekend of October, cold air coming down from Canada and moisture moving up the East Coast had combined to create sleet, snow, and freezing rain at elevations above about 4,000 feet. We were not discouraged, however, as most of the Park’s remaining mountain trails were still open, leaving many options for the next two days.

On Saturday morning we made our way to Sentinel Mountain. From the top there are views of Katahdin, Mt. OJI, and Doubletop Mountain on the northern side, and views of the North Branch of the Penobscot from the South side. It was cool and damp that day, and we were caught in a couple light showers. After, we headed back to the campsite for hot drinks and a shorter walk to Little Abol Falls. After dark we enjoyed a camp fire for a couple hours.

Sunday morning was clear and cool. A Perfect day for hiking, and we decided to hike up to Chimney Pond. It was a just over three miles from Roaring Brook to Chimney Pond. As we made our way up, the peaks began appearing through the trees, and the snow and ice was very obviously present. Before we started the hike I had suggested we should go up anyway, at least until it became to treacherous. Fortunately, the others were able to convince me why this was a bad idea. When we arrived at Chimney Pond, which is almost completely surrounded by the mountain, the ice-coated peaks, slopes, and cliffs encompassed almost the entire field of vision. This was a very spectacular view.

After stopping for a very chilly lunch (the wind was blowing down off the mountain), we made our way back down by way of Blueberry Knoll. There was a brief shower of sleet, which was brief enough at 10 minutes to be exciting, but not bad enough to make us hurry back down the trail. I spent about 15 minutes at Blueberry Knoll, completely alone, viewing my surroundings. It was probably one of the most relaxing experiences I’ve had in many months.

We finally made it back to my car around 3:30, and began the 3 hour drive home, which seemed very tedious. Although there was a feeling of melancholy when we arrived home, the satisfaction of having made this trip and seeing some beautiful scenery was the dominant emotion.

I’m looking forward to doing this again next year!

Follow this link, find the image, and give me a vote! : submissions_blue

As part of my recent trip to New York City, I visited the 2008 NY Photo Festival, which was held from May 14th to the 18th in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn. I attended Thursday morning, just after the festival was opened to the general public. This had an advantage in that I was able to avoid the crowds, but a disadvantage as there were a couple exhibits that were not yet set up and I was unable to view. Even so, the majority of the exhibits were completely set up and on display, and I spent about 3 hours viewing the works of contemporary photographers from around the world.

One of the standout exhibits of the festival was “Beurochratics” by Jan Banning, part of the “New Typologies” exhibit. This is a series of photographs of government workers from around the world. Each of the subjects of the photo were seated behind their desks, surrounded by the tools of their trade and various objects that they had accumulated over the years. I eagerly read the brief stories that accompanied each image, which included the salaries of each of the subjects, calculated in Euros. One fact I found interesting was that the subject with the highest monthly salary was a secretary from Texas, nearing retirement age. Banning’s prints in the exhibit were large and colorful, measuring about three feet on a side. The images were presumably taken with a medium format camera. The images displayed in the exhibit, as well as others, can be sampled on Jan Bannings’s website, www.janbanning.nl.

Another exhibit I personally enjoyed and found interesting was “Various Photographs”, curated by Tim Barker. The exhibit consisted of seemingly random photographs, from different photographers, printed in 8×10 format and hung in a grid on the wall. There were over 200 photographs in the exhibit, and in my observation, they all appeared to be simple snapshots of everyday things and events. What was unique about them, however, was that each image had something unique, bizarre, or otherwise eye-catching in them. As the curator noted in the Festival Program about this exhibit, “This show is a series of questions, an equation of symbols, a list of riddles - None of which have an answer”. It was fun browsing through these images, and experiencing the wide and varied emotional reactions I had to each.

As with any collection of contemporary art exhibits, I found a couple that I just didn’t understand. For example, one exhibit consisted entirely of photographs of camera flashes reflecting off of TV screens. The reflections had all been cropped out of photographs of Television sets posted on local Craigslist listings. The images all looked like grainy telescope images of distant celestial bodies and were organized on the wall so as to appear to build collection of stars. Another series I did not quite understand was displayed in the Chisel exhibit. It was a series of images of matted-down meadow grass. The meadow grass had presumable been matted down by animals, such as deer, making a place to sleep for the night, though I couldn’t find any information on how accurate my guess was.

There were many other exhibits, displaying a wide range of artistic and photographic styles, as well as post-processing and presentation techniques. Some of these included:
Chisel, which included a series of abstract images of shredded tires, and another featuring photographs of crumpled horse racing betting tickets. The latter was much more interesting than its subject matter would imply, as you could see the emotions that were experienced during the crumpling of these tickets.
The Ubiquitous Image, which included a wall of 5×7 prints of the sun and the moon, Images made from narrow slices of magazine prints, and large re-prints of old magazine advertisements.

There was also a series of satellite shows in the Tobacco warehouse, which highlighted photographs created using new, creative, or otherwise interesting post-processing techniques.

Talks, demonstrations, and presentations also occurred throughout each day of the festival, though my student pass did not grant me access to these events. Overall, attending the festival was certainly worth attending. Though the Festival may not be for everyone, I found it inspiring to see what contemporary photographers are doing and how new technologies and techniques are being used by professionals.

Through more-or-less pure chance, I’ve been to New York city twice in as many months this Spring. My most recent trip, which I signed up for back in January, was through the University of Maine Augusta, where I take a couple classes each year. I didn’t know anyone on the trip, which was great, as it gave me the opportunity to meet some new and interesting people, as well as explore much of the city on my own. The trip was also a very good deal at less than $300, which included a bus ride down and back, 4 nights in a hotel on the Upper West Side, a Broadway show, and and a day ticket to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Of course, I took lots of pictures, the best of which can be found on Flickr:
Photographs from my trip.

Here are some of the things I did while I was down there:

Wednesday
The bus left Augusta at around 8:30, and took about 8 hours to get to the hotel due to heavy traffic encountered as we entered the city.

After checking and dropping my stuff off in the room I would be staying in, I met out with some people I met on the bus and some other people in the group in the hotel lobby. We all decided that a trip down to Times Square for a walk around was in order. They city is definitely more spectacular at night, especially in Times Square, Rockefeller center, and anywhere else there is bright lights.

Thursday
Thursday was a solo day in the city, which was nice. In the morning, I took the Subway to Brooklyn for the NY Photo Festival (I’ll have an entry focusing on this in the next couple days). After that I got some lunch and ate it in Brooklyn Bridge Park, between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge.
After that I took the subway back up to Time Square, where I stopped off for a bear and spent a few minutes going over my notes from the photo festival. After that I walked over to 5th Avenue, then up 5th Avenue past some of the most expensive places to shop on the face of the Earth. I continued up 5th Avenue, along Central Park, before cutting across back towards the hotel.

The Park was beautiful. The leaves were out and it was a warm sunny day. I walked passed people rowing in the pond and walked along some winding pathways. Eventually I made it back to the streets, and walked the 5 or so blocks back to the hotel, where I met up with some people to head out to dinner with.

I’m very greatful that these individuals (Jon, Rachel and Sarah) were all open to the idea of having Indian food. I love Indian Food! We went up to Amsterdam Avenue where I had spotted a nice looking Indian restaurant the night before. After eating we headed across the street to bar that just so happened to have 50 cent beers that night. Needless to say, I stocked up, as beer is about $5 or more per glass or bottle in the City.

Friday
This was the lest fun of all the days. It was pouring rain, windy, and I walked around for about 5 hours outside in this mess. I rode up to the Bronx zoo with some other people to got to the Zoo. When we got there it was pouring rain, so I opted to head back to Manhattan to see if I could get into the Guggenheim.

When I got to the Guggenheim, there was a line around the block to get in. Being the impatient individual that I am, I kept walking to see if I could get into the International Photography Institute, which according to my map was 2 blocks up 5th Avenue. After walking in circles not being able to find it, I finally asked a door man where it was; It had moved to 42nd street.

Frustrated, but not deterred, I decided to walk across Central Park and head back towards to hotel to eat some lunch and re-group. By the time I got back, I wasn’t felling so hot, so I ate my sandwich and took a quick nap. I got a cold (which I’ve seen to have shaken today), so that sapped my energy for the rest of the trip, though by no means did it put me out.

After the nap I headed down to the Financial District to hit up Century 21 and see if I could grab a nice shirt for the Broadway show. The Broadway show that night was great, though my cold and lack of sleep were definitely taking their toll at this point. I crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel.

Saturday
By Saturday morning the weather had turned nice once again, and it was our day to got to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since it was such a nice day out I felt it would be wise to not spend the day indoors, but do some more walking around the city. The hour or so I spent at the museum was rewarding. I took the “Museum highlights” tour, which allowed me to view several works of art while having them described in detail by one of the Museum’s curators.

Walking around the Museum was a surreal experience. We walked through many rooms, and every time I looks over my shoulder I saw a famous painting or sculpture that I had seen somewhere, sometime before. There they were, right there. If it had been a rainy, miserable day like Friday had been, I certainly would have spent most of my day here.

Before leaving the museum, I met up with a couple who were interested in doing some more City exploring, which is what we did. We went further up 5th Avenue, then back into Central Park. The Park was much more crowded then it had been on Thursday. After a quick stop at the hotel, hopped on the train and headed down to the Village. We walked through the Village, making our way to Little Italy, where we planned to have dinner.

Once we arrived in Little Italy, the streets were blocked off for some kind of festival. There were tables on the side walks in front of all the restaurants. I got a beer and sat, watching people go by, while we waited for a couple other people to catch up with us.

We finally made our way into the back of one of the many Italian restaurants. Fuck the Olive Garden; this was the real deal. Our waiter was Italian, with a thick accent, and we were surrounded by tables full of Italian families. Two men came buy with a guitar and a violin and serenaded our table with song. To be honest, this was the first time the entire trip where I really felt like a tourist, but nonetheless it was a highlight of the trip.

After dinner we back-tracked through the village back to the subway system. There were a lot of gallery openings and other various parties. I looked in the windows and saw people in very dapper attire, sipping wine, apparently enjoying themselves very much. The streets were also very crowded.

We took the subway back as far as Lincoln Center, where we walked around for a bit. Unfortunately they were doing construction, so the fountain and lights were not visible. After that, we walked the 10 blocks back to the hotel. At this point I was both exhausted feeling the extra fatigue of my cold. My brain was mush. I went to bed.

Saturday
Saturday I slept late. Although it was the last day in the City, I was burnt out due to the cold I caught. I woke up, packed all my stuff, had something to eat, and took one final walk around the City near the hotel.

Although I had a great time, I was happy to get back on the bus and head back to Maine. I was impatient to get back, and exhausted, and I ended up sleeping most of the way back. I got back to my apartment around 9:00 and immediately went to bed in preparation for work the next day.

It was a great trip, which I’m still digesting now a week after it started> new York is an amazing City, and now that I’ve experienced it a couple times and realize what it has to offer, I hope I can keep going back.

I was in NYC last weekend for a few days and spent a lot of time wandering around the city, seeing quite a few of the typical tourist type attractions.

Click on over to my flickr set to see more photographs.

Highlights:
- Plenty of free street parking in Redhook.
- Excellent food everywhere we went.
- View of Lower Manhattan from the Mexican restaurant.
- An empty financial district on Sunday afternoon.
- Cheap happy-hour drinks at the Bait & Tackle.

- 70 degree weather on Saturday!

Low-lights:
- $6.00 beer in many places.
- Chewy stuff in the soup at the Vietnamese restaurant.

I’ll be going back in May, so I’m looking forward to spending some more time there. Note quite sure what I’ll do the next time, but the museums are looking good, as is the New York Photogrpahy Festival

Thanks to Larry and Genelle for being excellent guides around the city on Saturday.

Thanks to Kusi and Nick for their hospitality.

And Beth, for being an excellent navigator into and out of the city.

Last weekend I spent Saturday in Boston, walking around the city, stopping to look, and catching up with a couple old friends.

Because we were moving almost constantly, I did not have an opportunity to stop and ponder some artistic shots, but that wasn’t really the point of the trip. The point was to spend time with my friends, not wander off and take pictures. That’s a task much more suited to solo adventures or trips with other photographers. I did get some interesting snap-shots, though, some of which are now on Flickr.

The great thing about Boston, or any large city for that matter, is that there is always something going on, something interesting to do, or somewhere to go. This is very much in contrast to Augusta Maine, where I presently reside. My two friends from college who I was with that day are considering getting a place there together down there. I hope they do. It will give me a good excuse to go down there more often.

As I was browsing around the web today, I found a really amazing video (below) that’s gotten some attention on blogs in recent days. It was created and produced by a team of Dutch artists known as lichtfaktor. I found this video to be incredible, not only for its beauty, but also for the amount of time and effort that must have gone into producing it.

Light graffiti in still images is a reasonably simple concept. You set you camera up for a long exposure (at least 10 seconds, but more is better) and move a bright light source around the frame to “draw” on the exposure. All you need are some flashlights, glow-sticks, or LEDs and a camera capable of performing long exposures. When done for fun, you can get some very creative and abstract images. When done with some skill and forethought, one can create spectacular images.

Lichtfaktor has taken this to a whole new level, by combining multiple still exposures of light graffiti, and combining them into cohesive animated shorts. It’s also important to note that these videos would have been prohivitibly expensive to create even just a few years ago. Using a digital SLR and a laptop, 1000s of images can be taken, downloaded, and merged together in a matter of hours; imagine doing that with film. The amount of time, planning, and coordination that goes into creating these videos should not be overlooked. These guys are truly amazing, and very creative, which is why they have received so much attention in the past few weeks.

Find out more about lichfaktor and see more of their work here (sorry, it’s in german): http://www.lichtfaktor.eu/
They also have many of their still photographs on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lichtfaktor/