rachel_dixon

<p>Andy Graham: <i>throw out the two low ratings and the two high ratings..makes it a little tougher to cheat.</i></p>

<p>I'm somewhat puzzled by the suggestions to discard low ratings. Say I upload a photograph, and someone rates it 9/9 (hah!). The next person who comes along and rates it lower has their rating discarded, and the next, and the next. There's no way the photo will ever get a lower rating. Unless I'm missing something it makes the whole system pointless.</p>

<p>Aaron Helleman: <i>A moderation system seems to work well enough for slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org)</i></p>

<p>Aaron, moderation sounds like a good idea, except that the sheer <i>volume</i> of the images posted to photo.net and the number of members able to rate each one makes it impracticable. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of work involved in overseeing it.</p>

<p><i>Something else to consider. If you shoot slide film, you can project the image on a wall or screen at the size you are painting. Some friends of mine paint in this way. They find it easier to keep an accurate scale. </p></i>

<p><i>In that case, you can use Velvia. Great at bringing out colors in overcast conditions.</p></i>

<p>Don,</p>

<p>If you project, you can't paint, because the light required to accurately work with colour is different in both cases. There are painters who project the image onto the canvas and trace the elements onto it with a pencil before beginning to paint, but they generally need a print made from the slide as well, in order to render the colours accurately. You need good light to paint and bad light to project.</p>

<p>Personally I think the idea of projecting onto canvas kind of defeats the purpose of painting, which is to bring your own perception to the thing you paint (and that includes composition and perspective). Richard Estes, the noted photorealist, was sometimes accused of projecting images to get the extraordinary accuracy he achieved, a charge he hotly denied. I believe the practise is anathema to most artists.</p>

<p>Just a personal view, of course. If your friends are happy working that way, good for them. Don't quite see how they can do it, though.</p>

<p>Ryan, I paint, and I photograph, and I generally use Kodak Gold 100 for elements I'm intending to do paintings from. I should add, though, that my paintings are usually of urban settings, involving figures in landscapes, a la Hopper, Smart, Tansey and the somewhat more disturbed Fischl (although obviously I'm not in their league). I can't say I sweat the choice of film much anyway, since I find I usually invent lots of elements for the work, and fiddle with the light. IMHO what is attractive in a photograph is not often what is interesting in a painting, unless photorealism is what appeals.</p>

<p><i>If you really want to feel the cold, go to Bodie State Park, just a few miles north. It will make Mono Lake feel tropical, by comparison.</i></p>

<p>true. but it's definitely worth the trip.<p>

Howdy jack

You'll have plenty of time to do the inland swing - my partner and I did a similar trip two years ago, although we wtarted in LA and went up through the Mojave to Lone Pine before swinging down to Death Valley (didn't get to Joshua Tree), and then back up through Lone Pine again and over the Sierras to Yosemite. The Owens Valley is great - especially places like the Alabama Hills and the foothills of Mt Whitney. Plus there's Bodie up toward the Nevada Border. I think Phil Greenspun has some of these destinations listed at http://www.photo.net/webtravel/great-trips/slurp

Bodie is great. We're not much into organised historical parks, but it's something entirely different, and well worth the trip before you head off to Yosemite after Mono Lake.

At that time of year you might find the passes across to Yosemite kind of variable - the lowest pass was closed when we tried on the last week in October, so we detoured up to the next one. It's spectacular countryside, and there aren't a lot of other people around, so if you're into alpine scenery it's a beautiful place to spend a few hours.

Needless to say, take a good wide lens - and a tripod if you can. Death Valley aside, there's not a lot of light in some of these places at that time of year. But what there is can be spectacular - the weather is _weather_! Well, it is to we Australians, who don't have mountains anywhere near that big.

Also, if you're into the textures of metal etc and you're okay at talking your way into interesting places, there are some good weird rusting aircraft up at the Mojave airport.

I can't offer advice on camping since we stayed in motels, old softies that we are.

We loved the trip. I hope you do too.

Oh - and before you go, check out the chapters on the Owens Valley in "Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner, and watch "Chinatown" and a couple of old Westerns again. It'll add a little extra resonance to the trip.