Indian Point

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This photograph is now in a group show.

Over this last summer of 2009, I've been going on a lot of hikes along the Columbia River Gorge region between Oregon and Washington forests and mountains. I go with my friends who are expert hikers. They are my guides. They have seen incredible views of St. Helen, and other Colorado range. I'm always amazed that they rarely photograph the views. I climb the hills for the views. I've been lead up to Indian Point's secret spot. Some of the trails are hidden like this particular spot of Indian Point where I took this photograph. I gaze down and out towards the mighty Columbia River. My guides points to the opposite side of the River to Dog Mountain's peak. The ground below has signs of modern industries, cars, and damns. There are signs that the landscape is changing. I try to imagine the time when the Native Americans looked out to these majestic land before industrialization. These are some of the most sacred spots. On Silver Star Mountain trails, there is a path through huckleberry berries and brambles which leads to a sacred spot. The Native Americans build a shallow pit made of rocks. The initiate will then lay in the pit for a day perhaps night and wait for a vision. For me, the hike is a meditation of breaths, and exhaustion of body and mind. I carry my problems with me in my head and try to unpack them along the way, to work them out and wait for insights. Dropping a problem here and there and picking up new vision, insights and preserve them in my camera. I always carry a camera or two with me on these excursions. The images show a privilege view and make my physical exertion worthwhile. I carry these visions to the flat land and share them with my friends. I'm always proud of them and know that someday I won't be able to climb any more and will be glad to have the hard earned views. Photography allows me to capture the vision, a modern invention to express what has always been inside for those who choose not to share.

Wall Space Gallery

wall space seattle ND10 Down & Out Catalogue

The blog post regarding show is flatfile.blogspot.com

update: http://lexly87.blogspot.com/2010/08/friends-of-gorge.html

ND10 Postcard

ND10 Postcard

Originally uploaded by lexly87 aka Duc N. Ly.

Our 4th annual New Directions exhibition,
Down+Out
juried by Carol McCusker, curator of the Museum of Photographic Arts
is pleased to present 42 artists challenging the ideas of distance and scale.

Participating artists -
Robbie Acklen | John Aldredge | Jeff Antebi
Cordelia Bailey | Chris Bennett | Heidi Bertman
Andrew Binkley | Charles Blackburn | J. Wesley Brown
Alejandro Cartagena | Pete Cosenza | Matthew Derezinski
Kristen Fecker Peroni | David George | Colin Graham
Steve Guttenberg | Ray Hau | Nicole Jean Hill
Joshua Hobson | Adam Jaocno | Kirby Johnson
Jeffrey Krolick | Sarah Marie Land | Larry Larsen
Nathan Lunstrum | Duc Ly | Kora Manheimer
Patricia McInroy | Daniel Melo | Charles Mintz
Emily Nathan | David Jaewon Oh | Wayne Palmer | Ric Peterson
Dawn Roe | Wendy Ross | Michael Seif
Sarah Sharp | Peter Tilgner | Ronit Toledano
Anna Maria Vag | Jacqueline Walters

Here's the On-line Gallery

More information here.

Blue Amber

Dominican Blue Amber jewelry shoot for Custom Design Gem

Ricoh GXR

Well, I think it’s a brilliant idea. The sensor should be coupled with the lens. It makes sense if it’s going to be digital. The sensor won’t get dirty this way. The bw back is a nice idea. The leading companies like Leica, Canon, and Nikon have a legend of lens that seems to hold back camera designs. The Leica M9 is a good example. Ricoh has some heritage in older equipments but is not hold back by it. In the future when sensors improved, the body still works and if you want to shoot with older sensor for a retro look that’s cool too. It’s like going back to the film cameras of the 80s or 70s.

In fact this should have been the very first design of the digital camera because as we see the sensor technology has improved increasingly, this would have save us some money and let us upgrade only the lens and sensor and allow us to get used to the body and it’s menus and buttons. It seem a little bit too late in the game because sensors are so superb now. Ideally, the new camera should have interchangeable sensor separate from body and lens like a Hasselblad. This is when it’s possible to shoot with a 50’s Hasselblad with the new digital back. It’s a good start to move away from film based camera of the SLR. But this move seems like it could harken back to the medium format cameras.

I would think that the next progression it for an interchangeable sensor. It doesn’t seem far fetch. It makes sense to have the body separated because the digital technology has maxed out at 3 inch for the display screen. Any bigger would be bulky and 3 inches seems the right size to view images.

The digital view finder also flips to 90 degrees which is like the medium format style of shooting at waist level.

Update:  Recently, Ricoh have added the module which allows the Leica M Mounts.  So the resurgence of the GXR is back.  The only reason I knew about the M mount module is through Tomas Van Houtryve.  National Geographic asked their photographer what's in the bag.  Here is his gear.  His book on Lao is here:

Contax TVS Digital

Test Shots

Hood River Fruit Loops

Recently I joined a photography group.

I toured the Hood River Fruit Loop.

I asked her if I could take the photograph. She thought I wanted to make a portrait. I just wanted to photograph her hands and the way she held those apples. She said these are bad apples and that they are to be thrown away. She began to fix her hair. Then decided to put the other hand with this one.

Serious Compact Cameras

I like Leica a lot! This particular model Leica L Lux 3 is compact. Panasonic makes a cheaper (Panasonic Lumix LX3 and FX37) type using Leica's lens. I still think Leica has the best lens all around. The Leica L Lux 4 is a little bigger and pricer but probably what I would go for because I like bigger camera.
There are so many cool cameras out right now for compacts, I think it will rule the market. I prefer these to the bigger DSLR.
I have been looking at the Canon G series. The G10 was a year ago is replaced by the Canon G11. $500 but not as compact or pocketable.
But my new fave is the micro four thirds with interchangable lens.
Panasonic makes one call GF1 $900
and Olympus digital Pen $900
My first two digital cameras are from Panasonic with Leica lens. The LC1
has an amazing full size Leica Lens on it.
I think the Leica L Lux 3 is a very good compact. I would not hesitate to get it at $350 price. The name Leica is stylish and fashionable and the quality is very good.

blurb

Prospero's Book

By Duc N. Ly

Book Preview

Variations sauvages

But it wasn't until she met her first wolf that she discovered there was something missing in her life.

Late one night in 1991, Grimaud encountered a wolf-dog hybrid in Florida and felt an immediate, instinctual connection to the animal-one that the wolf also seemed to share.

The wolves are all over her. There is a photograph on the cover of 'Variation Sauvages' where her wolves muzzel her ears and face with kisses.
Some people say she turns into a wolf during her concerts. "And after seeing her play live, I'm sure she's turning into a wolve herself. Her hair looked like, and waved just like wolves' hair".

http://saintpaulsunday.publicradio.org/featured_artists/grimaud.html

http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2006/10/20061013_atc_06.mp3?dl=1

Buddha Temple

Buddha Temple, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

Kwan Yin Temple in North East
Portland, Oregon

Contax G1

Contax G1, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

a classic

I have a Panasonic Lumix LC1. The body is bigger then the G1. I find the proportions of the Digital cameras are all off! Maybe it's because in film camera, the chambers dictate the shape...form follows function. The digital camera like the G10 feels small. Why can't they just make a digital g1 or g2?

http://www.flickr.com/groups/g1g2/discuss/72157620978818472/

Yashica G Electro 35

Yashica G Electro 35, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

I got this from Goodwill

xD

Camera quest: trying to get a fast xD type H card is not easy. I called around the usual suspects but non had it. A search on google shows Overstock had it for $25. The only other place is on EBay for $57. I almost ordered it but I did not. I'm glad I searched Google for the best price.

Minolta XD

Minolta XD, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

I bought this camera at a goodwill auction for a very good low price. This is an alternative to the more expensive f1.4 lens. This is my fastest lens in my collection. The meter works great.

Lives of the Artists

This book confirmed that Richard Serra is a total Dick head. And I mean that as a compliment to the author for making it obvious in each paragraph. If you are a great artist you too can get away with this The title borrows from the classic Giorgio Vasari's 'Lives of the Artist'. Tomkins work allows him intimate access to the house and studios of these fine artists. The writing seems less serious then Vasari's. I attempt to read it long ago but it proved to be a snooze-fest. Perhaps I'll try to read it again.
Dare I say that Tomkins work is more 'Chatty' meaning less formal compare to Vasari but that's the times that these artists live in. What was not consider as art during Vasari's time is now art. For example, Serra's empty steel cages with objects in them. New materials have arrived since then such as tires, rubbers, and Core Ten steel. While Johns goes back to the ancient's method of Encaustic, his subject matter is contemporary: maps, arabic numbers, and targets. So to say that the writing is 'Chatty' is not a total loss. It probably adds to the tone. What is art criticism or art reportage now a days when the colloquialism of the blogs attempts to respond to works of art and to get a closer glimpse into the mysterious workings of the artist.

Reading about James Turrel's work in Ganzfeld. It made me realize that artist like Turrel is trying to make us realize that we put together the world through our perceptions. It is our blue sky. The perception of space is oriented within relations to other visual clues.

A Box of Matches

I like the cover concept of this book. This has been on my radar for a long time now. I'm starting to read it. Lately, I wanted to sellect short books that I could finish and feel accomplished. It's a slim volumn. Hearth and home, that has been the archetypal image of dwelling that goes back to the time of cave dwellers and the discovery of fire. The fire place is becoming rarer. I don't have a real wood fire place. Reading this book make you yearn for a fire place, a place to contemplate and meditate before the real world invades. It seems to be the perfect place to do the The morning page as assigned by Dorothea Brande in a book call 'Becoming a Writer'. I had an image of the narrator, diarist using a fountain pen and handwriting his thoughts on paper but I was a little dissappointed that Emmet wrote on a half open old laptop. He did this partly because he did not want to turn on the electric light. He is careful to keep the modern world at bay, waiting for the sun to rise. He makes coffee in darkness and fumbles around in dimness. The descriptions of blind navigation is amusing. [book:Becoming a Writer76788]

Vietnam A book of Changes

This image is a good example of how photographers have great eyes for story telling. It has a pop art feel to it because of the repeated imagery, like Andy Warhol's portrait of Chairman Mao. The other similarity is the iconography of the subject mater. Since it is a bust, it has that Roman classicism to it. It's interesting that I find capitalism in the way the art is presented. Warhol's pop method elevated our taste for consumerism and fame. He put it on the same level of art. It is a new art form. I like how each sucessive image is reveal and how the news paper wrapped around the bust seem to convey the passage of time and also to herald in the news of the day, the change of regime and the impact that it will have on the land. I do remember the requirement to have a picture of Ho Chi Ming on the wall of every house hold. This idea was borrowed from Chairman Mao. In the essay, Mitch mention how much change he saw on the subsequent trips Vietnam. These pictures were made over a long period of time during the 1990s. It is my favorite image of the whole book.

LC1

LC1 Circa J, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

The camera is Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1. What ever happened to the days of simple camera names like Leica M3, M4 etc. For simplicity's sake, I will call it the LC1. This camera has the Leica lens. There is a bit of troublesome dust spot which needs to be fixed. I did not see this problem until after the trip. I have to remember to be better prepared with equipments. The LC1 is light weigh and has manual switches and buttons to make adjusting the camera easier. It's like the old cameras, I don't have to dig through the manuals to find the functions. It has a 28mm lens for wide open shots of the landscape. Although, I think it does distorts the picture a bit.

I had the circuit board replaced for free by Panasonic because of the Sony Sensor problem. I'm enjoying the camera's shots much more now. It takes fantastic pictures, good color rendition in day light. However, there's a dust spot appearing in the sky shots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvtf0sM9XqQ

Dog Mountain

I put some of the images on Fotolia and Redbubble: http://www.fotolia.com/p/330135

http://www.redbubble.com/people/ducnly

May 24, 2009 Sunday around Memorial Day Weekend.

We left the city by 9am and arrived to a full parking lot already on this beautiful Sunday of Memorial Weekend. The trail head , somewhere near the Bridge of the Gods and Char Burger. We anticipate the carpet of yellow flowers around May which by August had died.

It has been four or five years since we last went up to Dog Mountain. I was younger and in maybe better shape. I don't remember the hike being this hard to walk up. Right off the begining, the climb is steep, worse then stairs. There is a series of switch backs. Today, the narrow path is like a highway with dogs, and humans passing opposite and from behind me. I did not stop, I just walk slowly. If I stopped at the beginning, the climb might be hard the rest of the way up. I had to push no at the beginning to set the pace, the tone of the hike. The yellow carpet of flowers would be the pay off. The gorgeous views would be there waiting.

This is a story made in 23hq.com. The camera is Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1. What ever happened to the days of simple camera names like Leica M3, M4 etc. This camera has the Leica lens. There is a bit of troublesome dust spot which needs to be fixed. I did not see this problem until after the trip. I have to remember to be better prepared with equipments. The LC1 is light weigh and has manual switches and buttons to make adjusting the camera easier. It's like the old cameras, I don't have to dig through the manuals to find the functions. It has a 28mm lens for wide open shots of the landscape. Although, I think it does distorts the picture a bit.

This is me at the Summit of Dog Moutain. Tim took this photograph.

I found this man taking a nap at the summit. He's 'Dog tired'.

There are plenty of dog at Dog Moutain. This one seems very regal. Man's best friend is also useful for caring water and other essentials.

Leica M4-2

Leica M4-2, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

I need a base plate for this monster.