Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Oops! Me bad! Me stupid!!



I made a big goof on the cover of my 'California Beach Trip" book - the image on the cover ran off the top of the page! Talk about stupid!
The blurberati were nice enough to pull it off amazon, and let me fix it.
But now in the previews i see, the text below the image isn't centered, even though in the edit preview, i did everything i could to center it. Is there a ghost in the machine?Hmmm - what do you think? Oh well, next time/next book i won't use the text boxes, that oughta solve that one.


REVISED LINKS:



If you want to see all the pages before you buy:

Friday, December 11, 2015

'Fire, walk with me'

Quoting Rumi, once again:

“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames”




A cairn marks the way, an explorer has taken direction, and set off into the fathomable, unknowable distance. Flames rise around the explorer. He is lit up, 'on a mission from god' to quote a movie i saw, i think the Blues Brothers, an unlikely source of a quote describing this image.
Do you recognize the image title? It's from 'Twin Peaks', a David Lynch masterpiece.
And it never hurts to quote Gautama Buddha's last words: "walk on!"
And, yes, set your life on fire.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

A slight interuption in the normal flow of images.


After 20+ years of making darkroom photomontage, and not being able to get arrested for it, I am publishing books i make with Blurb, getting them on Amazon.

I recently published a revised version of the 'California Beach Trip' images - marvelous and mind-bending B&W darkroom montage images - done almost 20 years ago for a multimedia company that never used them.
The first version was a 'pull out all the stops' thing, adding many new digital images, & overlaying text on the images. i asked two excellent designer friends of mine what they thought, and both answered the same - 'get back to basics, just the B&W, use very little text, & don't put it on the images'.
I took their advice. So here it is, hope you enjoy - it is also much more affordable, fewer images and no blank pages. Add a copy to your bookshelf, or buy the e-Book - now that's affordable!


On Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1364681250?keywords=California%20beach%20trip&qid=1449102160&ref_=sr_1_3&s=books&sr=1-3


http://www.blurb.com/books/6661547-california-beach-trip-photomontage-by-bob-bennett#basic

http://www.blurb.com/books/6661547-california-beach-trip-photomontage-by-bob-bennett/pages/0#basic

http://www.blurb.com/b/6661547-california-beach-trip-photomontage-by-bob-bennett

Yes, there are 3 different URL's, which seem to work differently on various browsers/systems - one of them will work for you, i sure hope!

The preview can't show all the images, but you can see them at the link below.

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BT_BW_Bk/index.html

There's two more books waiting in the wings, stay tuned, I'll be back!



Monday, November 23, 2015

The Prickly Pear Ranch

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net
And if you'd like to learn more about how i do magic in the darkroom?
There's a link to some pages about that at the site too.

Time to quote Rumi again:
"Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi

'Forget safety. Live where you fear to live' definitely applies to this place.
It's abandoned - two SW style shotgun shacks, outside Mojave Ca., seemingly surrounded by prickly pears.
Beware all ye who enter herein!


I won't try and add much to Rumi's words, but how bout another photo?
Here's another shotgun shack image, i titled it 'End of the Grid'.

 

And the B&W montage i did, which expands on the idea, end of the grid. The wire comes in from the left, the shack fades out to the right, dissolves into the desert.



That's all for now, i'll be back.. after this crazy thing called 'turkey day'.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Desert melody

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net


The desert, the mountains leading down to it, outside Las Vegas NV. 2008.

There is music here, though it has no melody, no key, no time signature.
Random notes, sounds... created from nothing, becoming something, resounding in nothingness - and everything -  echoing in your head.
Enjoy the cacophony.
Dance.


Tuesday, October 20, 2015

A stairway to....

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: http://www.bobbennettphoto.net
If you're interested in how i create these images, i got another blog for you:

"Stairway to...?"



The desert seems like a place that is almost devoid of life, harsh, inscrutable, totally unwilling to reveal it's secrets.
The emptiness sucks you in, and soon you learn what the emptiness teaches. It is actually a stepping stone, a stairway of sorts. Or perhaps a mirror - you see in it something of yourself - what that is, is up to you.

In a previous post i quoted Rumi:

'Only an empty bucket can be refilled'

The same is true here. There's a lot of silence here, so...
I'll quote Rumi again:

'Silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation.'

Monday, October 5, 2015

Crown of Thorns

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net




A throne of sorts, with a crown of thorns - what sort of place is this?

The thorns are actually a Joshua Tree, maybe not the acanthus you might have read about in ancient sources, but they are quite thorny enough.

Do you dare sit here? The chair looks comfortable enough, but the crown? I dunno about that.
I’ve been to this place. I think it's a place to make hard choices. Or maybe have deep challenging thoughts.

If you would take a seat, I could tell you just a few things about life.
Just a few. I don't know much more than that. Do you?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_thorns

Always gotta quote Ahnold, the Terminator:
"Ah'll be back"


Saturday, September 19, 2015

Reckoning

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net


One day, you will arrive at your reckoning, the end of your life. It will come to us all.
As Bob Dylan has written: 'He who is not busy being born is busy dying'.

A great omnipotent eye is judging the figure on the rock, the hour glass runs out, and turns into flashes of light, and nothing-ness, a hawk glides through the sky effortlessly, it has eyes way sharper than many creatures, definitely sharper than our eyes, by far.
If it is watching the figure (is that you?) what does it think?

When you get to your end, what will you think of your time spent on planet earth?
If you start trying to answer that question now, and changing your life for the better, perhaps as you turn into flashes of light and nothingness, you will do it with a smile on your face.


Tuesday, September 1, 2015

The Bucket


Rumi wrote that:
'Only an empty bucket can be refilled'
That's what this one is about.

Think about it.
And then put that thought into action, empty yourself, and get ready...



Tuesday, August 18, 2015

The Inspiration desk

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical, metaphysical, something like that.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net


An abandoned weathered desk in the middle of nowhere, hasn't been occupied in a very long time, it awaits a user, a student perhaps. There are stars descending from the sky, & birds flying above, a way of saying 'take flight!? explore!?', they hover over the desk... to protect it? To make sure it is noticed?
Any of these could be true. If you approach, will they attack you as in an Alfred Hitchcock movie?...
Or will they circle 'round your head...in some kind of empathy?
Your guess is as good as mine.
If you can find an impromptu seat of any sort, pull it on up, set yourself down, and see what happens.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Breakfast

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

 Breakfast


'Breakfast' - a curious word isn't it? a combination of two others. A 'fast' being a going without food overnight, a break being... well, a break in the fast. You wake up hungry. Coffee, tea, milk, juice. Eggs, sausage, bacon, perhaps some potato, fried up crispy and brown. Or if you do it California style? some chorizo and refried beans. A little cilantro w/ the beans, please. Some hot sauce in there, add it to any of the aforementioned.
And let me add extra sugar to that coffee, senorita.
The day before you is a desert, an empty slate, ready for your writing. So go at it.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

A Flaming Portal

 What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net



A petroglyph points to a portal, a burning hole in a rock wall, a most perplexing phenomenon. When's the last time you saw a rock burning? I guess that might be called something resembling a volcano? Beside this portal is a break in the stone, a chasm between huge slabs of rock, in which a smaller rounded rock has become stuck in it's descent, trapped.


There's a small symbol at the bottom of the crack which means....?
What a contrast here - one rock is trapped, another reveals the distance.
Perhaps this is a geological version of the age old question - is the glass half empty or half full?

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Balance

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: http://www.bobbennettphoto.net



Balance is an interesting word - it describes something physical. And also many things metaphysical.
Someone wanders out along a huge driftwood log, definitely needing a good sense of balance - or else!
A weight scale looms in the distance, measuring... some sort of balance - the scale itself is a physical balance - put things in the tray, and add weights to the opposing tray to ascertain 'equality' of some sort.
Your whole life is a balancing act of sorts, you will always be making choices, decisions. And it's all a one way street. Yesterday will always be history, today a prelude to tomorrow.
Perhaps it's like the lyrics in a John Hiatt song - "walk on, don't ask questions, don't you try to understand...".


Here's another commenmt on that:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/opinion/david-brooks-the-small-happy-life.html


Saturday, June 13, 2015

"To Have it all" is this image's title

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net



An abandoned safe sits in the sand, filled with rocks... out of which springs a mystical hand, fingers outstretched, reaching into the landscape for... what?
The rocks in the safe have no value, so what do you do then? - 'when you have nothing, you've got nothing to lose.' ( Bob Dylan wrote this lyric many years ago, it's a very good one.)

What do you reach out for, physically or spiritually? Now there's a question that one can answer the first part of... the second part is a lot more complicated, but much more rewarding than reaching for a cheeseburger.
Perhaps it's the 'reaching out spiritually' part that is important.


Monday, June 1, 2015

A different kind of window

 What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.
For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.
If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net
Or check out my other blog which talks about the darkroom work I get into:
http://californiasilverwizard.blogspot.com/




A very severe Nevada landscape, a rock wall hundreds of feet tall, carved by geological and hydrological forces too massive for us to wrap our heads around. Overlaid with an abandoned window in the ghost town of Bodie, a Ca. SHP.
Much has been written about the American SW desert, trying to explain why it is so entrancing, mesmerizing, inexplicable. I am reading a book by William Least Heat Moon titled 'Blue Highways'. Somewhere in there that I didn't earmark the pages were excellent ruminations about the desert.
There's a lot of nothing there. Thanks to the lack of tall vegetation (like back east - trees!), you feel like you can see forever, miles and miles and miles. Of what might seem to be nothing.
But somewhere in 'nothing' is everything. And this rock wall would be mute if you were to ask 'how? when?...'
So perhaps this image is about the window that this nothingness and inscrutability can be.


Sunday, May 10, 2015

A Matter of Time

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage, 
sometimes hand colored.
Every few weeks, a new image. For more details about the blog and the blogger - 
check out the Archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.


A Matter of time

(Made shortly after arriving in Ca. in 1992.)
A root spins in the wind, on the sand, carving a circular groove. Some small creature wanders across the sand, leaving history of it's passing as a small groove.
The fog rolls in. Time marches on. To quote a brilliant songwriter: 
"Time marches on, time stands still, time on my hands, time to kill. 
We contemplate eternity 
under the vast indifference of heaven." 

Thank you, Warren Zevon.

RIP



Sunday, April 26, 2015

About the blog, and the blogger


Your host and blog-master is a 63 YO photographer hailing from San Rafael, CA., USA.
The header image should tell you what this blog is a-gonna be about.
He first tried out photomontage in the mid '80s while shooting architecture left him with alot of time on his hands in the winter. (I mean who wants to see any buildings surrounded by snow? Nobody! If you don't have interiors to shoot? You're unemployed. He decided to *DO something*! w/ the down time... with a Beseler 45MXII at his immediate disposal (with seriously great lenses), he went wacko.)

The guy was instantly hooked, & has been so ever since.

When Photoshop finally came of age, all his photo friends thought he would abandon 'darkroom'.
Nope, no way, no how.
Yeah, he does some digital work, (which might show up here from time to time), but nuthin' beats darkroom.

He recently became aware of the fact that blogs are made to be 'mobile friendly'... and his various websites are not. Bummer! He's not going to rebuild them or pay someone big $$ to revise them, He likes the way they look, and  he doesn't really care for the formatted (=automated) looks that so many people go for.
Just take a look at his main site:
(on a real computer)
www.bobbennettphoto.net
Nothing 'cookie cutter' about it. And another thing about all the automated site building options? Yeah they have lotsa choices, but only those choices. He does the site w/ Dreamweaver, and can customize any page, anyway he wishes. He likes that.
-----------------------

I do a blog about darkroom, and get into how each image is built, show the negs, talk about the technique. It's really for darkroom montage artists, however many there are of them out there. Probably damned few.
Here, I am just going to show images, that's all. The blog is a way to get around the mobile unfriendlyness of www.bobbennettphoto.net.

So I'll be dishing out an awesome image every couple of weeks, with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philsophical.


As a prelude, take this in:

"FIRST THOUGHT, BEST THOUGHT"
DOCUMENTARY, THE CAPTAIN - Captain Beefheart of course - who else?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBa8bS_vZkM

Here's the first offering:

Explorer




One of my first darkroom montage images after arriving in Ca. in 1992.
Ends up being one of my best. A circle of stones is broken - an explorer of sorts heads out into uncharted territory, symbols of power and transcendence are on the horizon.
Shall we follow him? Yes, let's do that, but at a safe distance - ya never know what kinda trouble he might get into.

And if you'd like to get a print?
Here's the place to go:

http://bob-bennett.fineartamerica.com/