Photogenic snow

It's just about gone, but lots of people captured Baltimore's snow.

Troy, who took that first photo offered some advice for snow photographers: Bracket your shots. The snow can trick your light meter, so take one shot as your light meter indicates, but also some underexposed and overexposed. (Some cameras have a setting to do this automatically.)

Check out Troy's snow photo set.

Art -- Creating and collecting

The New York Times Magazine makes a case for photography as this century's painting in a profile of Jeff Wall, "Where Jeff Wall has Taken the Photograph."

"One thing that Wall knew for certain when he took up the profession in the
late 1970s is that he would not become a photojournalistic hunter. Educated as
an art historian, he aspired instead to make photographs that could be
constructed and experienced the way paintings are."

Photography seems so accessible as a viewer and as a creator because we consider that there's an element of luck (in addition to patience and having a good eye). But where Jeff Wall has taken the photograph is to a place where the artist's vision is as important as it is in other artistic media. He does not see the picture in front of him; he creates it.

The Times Magazine also features the home (and contemporary art collection) of philanthropist Constance Caplan. The article doesn't say where in Baltimore this is, but I think it's way north, by Lake Roland, possibly in Baltimore County.