Envisioning

In the early 1970s my good friend, Steve Peaslee introduced me to single lens reflex cameras.  For  a

Minolta SRT 100

number of reasons I was in the midst of a five year stint in a factory, Universal Milking Machines, that manufactured pipeline milking systems and bulk milk tanks.  Steve was a couple of years into the University of Minnesota and had become a lingerer in the West Bank Art Department.

Following many conversations I purchased a Minolta SRT 100.  My first roll of transparencies were reviewed by Steve's critical eye:  "These are pretty good."  I still have that SLR and the box of transparencies.  A Minolta SRT 101 was added shortly thereafter, which I also still have.  The 100 had a mirror lockup and a faster shutter speed.  Each accommodated me for a long time, one loaded w/ varying color film, the other always with TRI-X.

During my oft-mentioned stint, the 27-year gig, I kept very few objects of personal interest in my office.  Others had regularly updated family photos, flowers, and just things.  I found all of that distracting.  There was very little personal that was visible.  About twenty years ago my daughter and I took a road trip to Chicago, visiting the Chicago Institute of Art. There was a traveling Monet collection which was delightful, but what caught my attention was Van Gogh's "The Bedroom," part of CIA's permanent collection.  As it turns out there are several versions.  I could go into that but Wikipedia is more or less accurate on that topic.

Vincent Van Gogh "The Bedroom"

It is worth mentioning that this actually is his bedroom.  The room was trapezoidal (that would be nice) and the corner in the rear left is somewhat representative.  Apparently in several versions of this image that corner remained somewhat inaccurate...but of what matter is that?

Two years ago during the era of my iPhone 4 I added a high end "point and shoot" digital camera.  Shortly thereafter I replaced the iPhone 4 with an iPhone 5 and that has remained the point and shoot device of choice.  Every couple of months I pull out the camera, located the correct charger and refresh all the batteries which have virtually no use.

Today during a discussion with my son I mentioned that I was on the verge of buying a digital SLR camera.  It's not clear what caused me to start thinking about that.  If I remember correctly the Minolta SRT 100 was either $100 or $200 at the time, both numbers were big.  My weekly gross in the manufacturing plant was usually around $150.  The entry point for a digital SLR today seems to be around $500.  Our discussion was not about features but batteries.  My long ago conversation with Steve was about features and functions and he was a fan of German cameras.  My son and I discussed the disadvantages of proprietary batteries versus AAAs, the hassle of SD cards and the need to have the correct chargers and cables.  Back in the day I used a military surplus tool bag to carry my cameras, gear and a few days supply of film.  It was pretty simply.  Creativity prevailed, not electronic functionality.

After the trip to Chicago I put a small reproduction of "The Bedroom" on a shelf in my office.  There was some intent of framing it but the image initiated a transition thought.  The SRT 101 started me down one path that's lasted a long time and the Van Gogh refreshed the motivations for that journey and change.  When I left "the gig" I brought home about four copy paper boxes of files, reports, etc.  Fifteen months later all but a couple of folders has been recycled.  At my primary home workstation I am surrounded by a lot of paper more than a couple live and dead computers and more adapters and cables and CDs and memory sticks and SD cards than I care to acknowledge.  On a shelf to my right, as in the office is "The Bedroom."  It's there to remind me that this, too, is a transition to yet another point of creativity and production.

James Patterson is responsible for 17% of all hard cover fiction books sold in the US each years.  It's not clear to me how old he is but he cranks out fourteen books per year in adult and juvenile literature. He does not use a computer. This all does require seat time.  There's a farmer whose blog I follow that is also quite productive in his writing but cites that time is the problem.  During the gig that was the time consumer and during this transision I can only hope that the transition has been the time consumer and that we're getting to some mileposts.

There are no computers, outlets, adapters, batteries or cables in this image.  During a visit Gauguin stayed in an adjoining bedroom which also had no computers, outlets, adapters, batteries or cables.