Byron Dudley

Amazon Headwaters Forest

2012-01-02T15:58:00.001-08:00

Time to turn over a new leaf

2011-12-28T09:21:00.001-08:00

Free Range Turkey ?

2011-11-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

2011-10-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

2011-10-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

Tail light

2011-10-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

Headlight-Headlamp

2011-10-11T15:59:00.001-07:00

My summer job

2011-09-14T12:04:00.001-07:00

My summer job #11

2011-09-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

My summer job #10

2011-09-13T18:19:00.001-07:00

My summer job #9

2011-09-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

My summer job #8b

2011-09-12T21:46:00.002-07:00

My summer job #8

2011-09-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

My summer job #7

2011-09-12T21:17:00.000-07:00

My summer job #6

2011-09-12T08:22:00.001-07:00

My summer #5

2011-09-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

My summer job #4

2011-09-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

My summer job #3

2011-09-11T12:32:00.001-07:00

My summer job #2

2011-09-11T11:23:00.001-07:00

My summer job

2011-09-11T10:36:00.001-07:00

Cloud #69

2011-06-16T01:30:00.000-07:00

Willamette National Forest

2011-04-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

Bipartite: Colour & B&W

2011-03-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

I was recently listening to a podcast entitled “colour and the specific thing” in Lenswork Extended #78 Brooks Jensen boldly broached the issue of colour and B&W photography. Here are some of his key points I focused in on. He spoke of colour photography as making a specific statement, as being particular, individual, specific, or unique to its subject matter. He spoke of virtually all B&W as being “separated from the individual thing” he described B&W as being representative of a “universal statement”

I agree whole heartedly especially since he included the word “virtually” I of course choose to focus in on, and interpret his acknowledgement that there are “virtually” always exceptions be they B&W or colour. One of the ways Fine Art Imagery can transcend “virtually” all other colour photography and communicate a “universal statement”, to communicate “the separation from the individual thing” is by retaining only a hint or tint of colouring. An image that has for arguments sake been desaturated to say -75% as opposed to the -100% of a true B&W; I feel may more often communicate the “universality of the human condition” as Mr. Jensen puts it. One might also argue that tinting a B&W Image is colouring it. Try properly desaturating from say 0% to -75% a visually balanced colour image and I’d argue the uniqueness, the specificity, the individuality of a visually balanced colour image will be decreased or ceased to exist; thus projecting that “Universal Statement” that transcends form, be it B&W or Colour. This desaturation brings us full circle to enabling a colour image to representative of a “universal statement of truth”, to “separate from the individual thing”, just as virtually all Tinted B&W Film does. Proper digital desaturation of colour is no different than properly tinting B&W Film. So the way I see it digital colour and tinted B&W Film are sort of fraternal twins. When properly processed the two Artistic Processes parallel one another in what they are capable of communicating to us. A “universal statement” is communicated from within an images itself, enabling it to transcend the formats we call B&W and Colour; although it is admittedly much more challenging, but not impossible for colour imagery to do so. So yes colour imagery when properly created can and does “separated from the individual thing”

Below is a colour image that I fell communicates a universal statement of truth as Mr. Jensen stated virtually all B&W’s do. This image is able to communicate this message of universal truth due to its visual balance, even though its colour is not desaturated or tinted. It is the balance of the image that allows it to communicate to the viewer as virtually all B&W imagery does. Its balance is at the core of what enables it to communicate universal truth. Its contrasting matrix of lightness and darkness laid out across the entire image is what brings balance to the image. This balance nullifies the typical uniqueness or specificity that virtually all other colour images communicate. This images balance is also derived from the tree trunks weighing to the left, while the path and hillside weighs to the right. These two ways of balancing the image transcends B&W and colour. Thus enabling the image to communicate what Jensen referred to as a “universal statement of truth” as a virtual exception to its colour brethren.

Springfield's Wraught Iron Gate

2011-03-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

On Clouds

2011-03-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

I am utterly enthralled with clouds. Clouds capture my imagination no matter the setting. Here I will try to put into words some of the why that has compelled me to photography the clouds. I will try to create a literary contrast between Northwest Cumulus and the Southwest’s Cirrus Clouds.

Clouds make up the oceans of our atmosphere they are transitory by nature; they are sky waves that ripple upon the winds and thermal currents in the air. They embody change for they are constantly in flux. Like yin and yang, they are cold and hot. To really capture the essence of clouds requires passionate anticipation, passionate intuition. Clouds pour down rain into the oceans below, where it's then recycled and sent back above. This recycling is epitomized in earth’s cycle of life, of death, and beyond. It is this beyond that Clouds so personify.

“Northwest cumulus clouds play a definitive role in terms like “Big Sky” or “God’s Country”. These Cumulus Clouds seem to have been chiseled out of large globs of albino clay and smacked down with temerity; splattering-clumping onto this canvas we call sky. Covering the sky-canvas this cloud clay is then sculpted and chiseled with the acumen of the Gods”.

Southwest Clouds often appear more subtle, more measured. Still they’re capable of extending their presence across, even beyond the horizon. In the Southwest cirrus (stratus) clouds often stretch across the horizon as if one long translucent sheet of rice paper were stretched out upon the walls of one’s living room.

These clouds compliment and interweave themselves into this cohesive fabric we call sky rather than define it. Clouds here work more in conjunction with the landscape rather than acting as its predominant feature. Their soft, fluffy, or billowing, yet their uniform surfaces accentuate the landscape rather than defining it as in the Northwest.

The Iron Gate

2011-03-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

UofO Campus

2011-03-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

Near Pendelton

2011-02-28T20:10:00.000-08:00

Haystack

2011-02-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

untitled Tanka

2011-02-14T20:06:00.000-08:00

I sit alone
Millions of thoughts pursue me
On a mountain pass
Burnt mud caked to my boots
flicked off with a burnt stick

Chinatown in Seattle

2011-02-09T19:16:00.001-08:00

Tin Can

2011-02-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

2011-01-28T14:56:00.001-08:00

A foggy morning in Eugene

2011-01-27T18:18:00.000-08:00

Downtown Eugene, Oregon

2011-01-27T12:14:00.001-08:00

Eugene, Oregon

2011-01-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

Wyoming

2011-01-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

2011-01-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

Jaqua Academic Center, on the U of O Campus

2011-01-08T19:25:00.000-08:00

Juxtaposed Xing

2011-01-02T23:23:00.001-08:00

Stonehouse

2011-01-02T16:57:00.001-08:00

Using the Hipstamatic App

2011-01-02T02:01:00.001-08:00

West of Pendelton

2011-01-01T00:34:00.000-08:00

Is it 1933 or 2011

Fat Tire, Montana

2010-12-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

Jersey Tstop

2010-12-24T20:55:00.000-08:00

Washington Wheat ?

2010-12-19T00:34:00.000-08:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson

2010-05-06T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #13

2010-05-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #12

2010-05-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #11

2010-05-02T14:54:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #10

2010-04-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #9

2010-04-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #8

2010-04-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #7

2010-04-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #6

2010-04-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #5

2010-04-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #4b

2010-04-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #4

2010-04-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #3

2010-04-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #2

2010-04-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

The Mythical State of Jefferson Post #1

2010-04-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

Hennepin Canal

2010-04-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

Hood River, Oregon, with Mt Hood in the background

2010-04-13T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hay Bales in Montana

2010-03-29T02:07:00.000-07:00

Rooster Cruiser, Illinois

2010-03-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

Nebraska

2010-03-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

Gold Beach

2010-03-15T00:10:00.000-07:00

Bridges Smith #1 & 2

2010-02-15T02:30:00.000-08:00

2010-02-14T19:45:00.000-08:00

A untitled Tanka:
Natures Candles glimmer
Autumn's lightning blooming
Petal plumage droops n flickers
Leaves wither in white dew
Foliage raindrops in free fall

MOLESKINE

2010-02-08T02:39:00.000-08:00

MOLESKINE

As I reach into my bag I do so a little more intently

I embrace it a little more intuitively earnestly

As I retrieve it into my field of view I give it a visual a tactile twice over

My fingertips caress its soft leather bound skin feeling it out for bruises scratches or tearing

My fingertips intentionally ease up alongside its elastic strap

I then gleefully

Spreed my MOLESKINES inner binding open to release that smell feel and look that is so enticingly familiar

I can't resist stroking the slight gap created flush up against its inner spine

I grab its back with my left hand and press hard up against its pages with my right

While leaving droplets from my soul upon its pages

I then firmly lovingly bear down with my thick felt pen into its pages

Trying not to stain or smudge too much but sometimes

I just lose all inhibition and scratch!

Here there everywhere

2010-02-01T06:25:00.000-08:00

Recalcitrant winds gust about

East West North and South

Ephemeral gorge winds

10 Degrees at Dawn

2010-01-30T17:59:00.000-08:00

10 Degrees Dawn

The Gorge frozen dry

The sun diffused by clouds

Its mountainous walls drenched in dripping rain

2010-01-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

INTERSTATE

Salted, plowed, well groomed

In the median you go

Grimy mucky snow

TA tstop in Breezwood, PA

2010-01-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

The Canal in the refurbished Bricktown District of Oklahoma City

2010-01-15T19:01:00.000-08:00

2010-01-10T11:41:00.000-08:00

A sculpture in the Art Department at Duane College, in Crete, Nebraska. Duane claims to be the First Liberal Arts College in America ?

Looks like, feels like

2010-01-06T22:11:00.000-08:00

Pollute extort

Deny deception

Copenhagen coughs up reprobations

Red Barns

2010-01-01T00:05:00.000-08:00

Staged Doubles, George, Washington

2009-12-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

Dayton, Ohio

2009-12-25T19:06:00.000-08:00

Tea Pot

2009-12-18T18:55:00.000-08:00

The Baltimore Maryland Produce Market

2009-12-14T11:48:00.000-08:00

Railcar & Mile Marker 17

2009-12-05T18:50:00.000-08:00

RAILCAR

Rusted out railcar

Discarded in winter's dawn

Harmony, discord

Mile Marker 17

At milepost 17

By the Lambertville Railcar

Amongst trees and vines

A momentary sketch in time (POEKUAGERY)

2009-11-28T18:13:00.000-08:00

Texture in structure

We create a flawed structure

Cracks, stains, transparent shadows

Nature sculpts, chisels, and perfects it with the tools, of weather, of time

Artistic design

Thus a work of art is sketched within a moment in time

The Red Leaf

2009-11-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

The Red Leaf

Dying amid death

withering amongst the dead

Amassed upon the forest floor

strewn upon a bed of leaves

Ah What Imagery

(ah something to wipe with)

This reddened foliage renews life again

Northern Exposure, Town n Set

2009-11-24T11:35:00.000-08:00

The Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho

2009-11-17T19:23:00.000-08:00

RIVERBED MARBLES

A river gurgles as it flows downstream

A riverbeds marbles create a pounding 

Rumbling that permeates into the air

Though muffled
by a layer of streaming water most everywhere

A river rumbling

Pebbles pounding

Sounds like marbles colliding under cold water in

My kitchen sink

Lookout Pass (Idaho-Montana Border on I-90)

2009-11-15T17:12:00.000-08:00

Hennepin Revisited (Hennepin Canal in Illinios)

2009-11-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

A sculpture at the Oklahoma City Firemen Museum, above the Wall of Valor

2009-10-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

Trough - The Summit (both on US30 in Idaho)

2009-10-25T14:41:00.000-07:00

More Foliage

2009-10-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

Foliage on the Pennsylvania Turnpike

2009-10-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

Fenceline, (US 30 in Idaho)

2009-10-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

Snoqualmie Pass from the Pacific Crest Trail

2009-10-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Harvest outside Manhattan, Montana

2009-10-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

Just east of Agate, Colorado in Elbert County

2009-10-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Sirens Tower (Missouri tstop)

2009-09-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Ribbons for Albertsons (Ribbons are made here in Berwick PA)

2009-09-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

TRUCK STOPS (unedited /journal entry from 2007 )

2009-09-19T21:54:00.000-07:00

TRUCK STOPS

Upon exiting ones truck,
Opening a window,
Or returning from the tstop from a shower or meal
Ones abruptly inundated by the insidious sensation of
Sensory saturation by the rank smell of urine laced with diesel
Eyes may tear or burn from this aroma of diesel fumes and putrid old dry urine, blending into a concoction that stifles the lungs from taking in full or extended breaths.
This combines to create a tstop miasma, and creates the sensation of being in a steam room. Although not always visible this truck stop steam is no less potent being sensed as if ammonia sticks were broken under the nostrils, and the sensation of cottonmouth on the tongue and soft palette were present.
Then the tongue develops the sensation of tasting, then swallowing this aerosolized diesel-urine concoction created by the ceaseless dumping of gallon milk jugs filled with days old urine.
Imagine the smell of a urine laden subway where diesel substitutes for stale air and the musky miasma of sweat, perfume, cologne, and homeless body funk.
It’s akin to the sensation of a humid pre Katrina New Orleans afternoon. Where while strolling through the French Quarter the heat and humidity cakes onto ones body like a second skin.
Afterward one burps and the ever so slight after burp up choke after taste, tastes as if tinged with these ingredients and one has the tactile sensation of having wet talcum powder on the back of the tongue and roof of the mouth. Clothing also gathers the tell tale effect of having been in a smokey lounge.
Your lungs want to cough out this carcinogenic cocktail like a kid having completely inhaled their first puff of a cigarette.

After awhile ones body adapts and the drivers rarely identify these effects as anything more than benign tumorish like side effects.
We become as elderly men and woman nursing enlarged prostates and breast cysts. We tolerate these organically produced foreign masses of sensation as growths we are reluctant to address or disturb since we have formed a symbiotic interaction that dysfunctional-ly serves our denial of the situation.
Even so the idling diesel engines fill the air with what is for a driver a lullaby of loosely melodic charging of turbos and stroking of pistons on their shaft walls that culminate as they reach the peak of their upward thrusts. As each driver pulls into his parking slot, once set to idle her engine falls slowly into the loose rhythm of the others.
All of this allows truckers and trucks alike to gear down into the idling tempo set by the diesels white noise and maintain the stasis of a tstop’s stasis.