Speaking Of Which

Three years ago exactly, I decided to post images and words to a blog every day. Yes, I realize that I missed the blogging trend by about a decade. Story of my life, if I'm honest, and in that sense, a very fitting thing for me to do. It doesn't matter that much in any case, cuz, like, I'm in search of neither money nor fame. 

My goals were pretty basic: keep in touch with a handful of family and friends scattered around the world without having to rely on social media, which I kind of hate; and get into the habit of writing down my thoughts about photos. Nothing profound. Just simple stuff, really, stuff I wish someone else was writing, but they weren't. 

Mission accomplished, then. In the meantime, the world has opened up again, I can mostly keep in touch face-to-face. And I've established a writing habit, which I can continue in a private journal. 

Perhaps I am like a dog, marking the fire hydrant and moving on. I'll leave my little project for other dogs to find and know that I passed by before.  

Anyway, I'm off to Japan next week, so sayonara, y'all! 

Whither Your Pandemic Projects?

Most of us likely documented our experiences of the pandemic, more intently as we realized that it was more serious than we first thought. And most of us wisely kept them to ourselves, these 'projects'. Wisely, too, judging from some of the utter crap we've been exposed to from others, including well known artists. 

You know. Dirty N95s strewn across sidewalks and into gutters. Some of this imagery seems a bit cringy to me now, barely months later. According to the NYTimes, the early 21st Century is among the least interesting periods in cultural history. 

But still, what are you going to do with the work you made? Me, I created a series of imaginary landscapes from TV shows we streamed. Deep stuff, sure, but still a few turned out kinda decent.  

Sources Of Inspiration

As visual artists, it of course comes as no surprise that the natural world is a major source of inspiration for our work. Looking at the patterns of these leaves more closely, I think I'd say the same about our local baristas and their latte art. Cheers!

Halloween-ish?

Is this some kind of color code the city uses to tell someone on the maintenance team to please go ahead and grind these stumps already? Or is it some kind of chemical or pesticide treatment? I'm not privy to the codes, so it'll just have to remain a mystery. One thing I'm pretty sure of is that it wasn't done for Halloween. Or was it?

Hyper Local 2

I suppose I should have gotten my ass out to Texas or New Mexico to shoot my very own personal ring of fire eclipse shot, but I had more pressing matters to attend to, a life to live, etc. At any rate, for most of the morning it was very overcast, but toward noon the sky began to clear. And, the patchy cloud cover actually worked to my advantage here, reducing the brightness of the sun to a manageable level. This shot of the partial eclipse was taken with my 11 year old X-Pro1, which I've been messing around with lately.

Shoot local, y'all.   

Hyper Local

In certain parts of the Deep South, you gotta be careful when telling folks you're from LA. You see, LA can also mean Lower Alabama. No, really. To avoid confusion, just go ahead and say 'Los Angeles'. Then folks'll understand right away why you have a funky accent. You won't have to explain. And just go ahead and say 'University of Texas' when you tell 'em where you went to school. If you say 'UT', they'll ask you about your favorite places in Knoxville, TN.  

My Name Is Smith, And I'm A Workist...

About twenty years ago, I had the once in a lifetime beautiful experience of watching a building I used to work in get demolished. From the comfort of my new office, but still. I loved the show. I have a series of documentary photos taken using my old 3 megapixel digicam. 

For many years, I was a committed workist. Work = me. Man, I've got to live with that tattoo for the rest of my life! Thankfully, the scales did ultimately fall from my eyes, and I never turned into a cockroach, but still. They got their pound of flesh!

Good light this weekend, fellow traveler.

Fun, Remember Fun?

There is no practical need, or a need of any kind, really, for a huge negative such as the massive one I exposed here using the Fujifilm BL690. Six times nine square centimeters of pure goodness. One hundred percent. Seriously, what is the point of such a large negative in today's world? But anyway, practicalities aside, it is just nice to have such a big juicy negative in one's possession. Swimming in detail. Crisp as hell. It is just fun. Remember fun? If not, it comes highly recommended.

A Pond

This may look like a very mundane water retention pond to the untrained eye, but to me, this morning at least, it was a very pleasant landscape to take in. You see, I was at the dentist's office getting my teeth cleaned and making an appointment to repair an old filling. This is the best view I've ever experienced while seated in a dental chair. It is the real reason I'm a repeat customer.

Tasting notes: Fujifilm X-Pro1, TTArtisan 27mm lens.

Wild Persimmon

For years, vines were choking the wild persimmon growing in our front yard. A few orange blobs of astringent fruit would drop to the ground each year around this time. Even the squirrels declined to eat them. Not long ago, we had the area cleared of the vines and brambles and now the persimmon is thriving, with an abundance of fruit. With the vines gone, I also noticed the bark for the first time. I liked the way the film rendered the colors, too.

Tasting notes: Leica R9, 35mm Summicron, Lomography Color 92.

The Tale My Thoughts Would Tell

I have heard plenty of photographers weigh in on the topic of memory. Artist statements are full of such musings. While it is not a big stretch to link the two, photography and memory, the details of the relationship can be a bit murky and hard to disentangle. Some associate photographs with imprints on memory, while others say basically the opposite, that the act of possessing a photograph of a thing weakens the imprint on our brains. Like relying on your phone too much. Maybe the key is to take a sufficient number of photographs such that each one is no longer precious to you, then put them away for a period of time. Then, later, go look at 'em again and see if they cause any neurons to fire. Or maybe you just feel confused? Time to make an appointment at the memory unit, son. 

What A Difference A Day Makes

Yesterday, we got our first taste of real Fall weather. Welcome back, old friend! I decided to chuck a roll of the new Lomography 92 film into my R9 and just snap away. The dog days are gone, for a time, for a time. And the Fall light sure is sweet. After lunch, I mixed up a fresh batch of C41 chemistry and processed the film myself. It is definitely a grainy film with a coolish color response. Something a bit different, though, just what I was looking for. Just what the doctor ordered. These are our wild crepe myrtles looking like a forest.

Phone Or Dedicated Camera?

A friend of mine loves to shoot his food; he's one of a new generation of food documentarians out there putting their phone cameras to good use. He told me he uses Portrait Mode to get the best subject separation. That's certainly what I'd do if I wanted to have a permanent record of my dinners. But, I have to admit, I don't have much interest in documenting my meal experiences. 

Still, I did really enjoy the way the liberated pomegranate seeds looked in this bowl. It's funny, in the kitchen, I'm not at all in favor of owning tools that only do one thing, like pitting an olive, for example. I'd rather just bash the olive with the side of my chef's knife and take out the pit with my fingers. But in photography, it seems, I really do prefer using a dedicated camera to make images. 

John Is Bored At Work

On LingQ (language learning app) the other day, I encountered the sentence "John is bored at work" in Japanese. What a funny example! Yet again, I reflected on how many people spend a significant fraction of their work day dreaming about a better job, and probably learning a second language... Anyhoo, there was a time about 20 years ago when my workaday fantasies revolved around food blogging as a possible alternative. You see, I was a devoted foodie with the pear-shaped physique and elevated insulin levels to prove it. My plan was to start by documenting as I went about preparing meals. What I discovered is that my cooking got worse and my cameras and lenses got covered in a layer of grease. No thanks.

Take heart, it is almost the weekend, fellow traveler...

Reflections ATL

Near the end of his life, Harry Callahan lived in and photographed around the city of Atlanta. I don't think this body of work is particularly well known, but the time frame coincides with my own relocation to the area. I'm interested in it for that reason. I suppose the lesson is, if you see something interesting, shoot it. Decades on, this work will be interesting in its own right. To someone.

Bathroom Gallery

It can certainly be rewarding to trade work with other artists or just give it away to a friend with good taste. But seeing your work hanging in someone else's bathroom, well, that can be a bit of an emotional experience. Never mind that it is the first thing seen in the morning and the last thing seen at night, there is just a certain stigma associated with the bathroom. The outhouse, doghouse, crapper, etc. Which is why one of my own images always hangs over the shitter, if that makes sense.
 

Maximum Entropy, Minimum Gear

On my first trip to Italy, I brought a backpack full of camera gear, including every lens I owned at the time -- about ten or so. Not only was the payload rather heavy, I was so uptight about theft that I didn't enjoy myself any where near as much as I should have. Fast forward a decade or so, and I found myself traveling with a one lens one camera set up. A shorter lens might have been preferable here, but I still like the photograph I came home with. As time goes on, I find myself embracing minimalism more and more. 

Interesting And Popular

Seems like it takes longer and longer to get things done. Everything is complicated, somehow. Ain't no such thing as simple, no sir. I just spent the majority of the day getting three major errands run. Life stuff, nothing exceptional. So, I'm writing this about eight hours later than I usually do. And I'm pretty dull; can't imagine what it would be like if I were interesting or popular.

Warm 'N Dry

In recent years the weather pattern is for warm and dry weather this time of the year, and 2023 in no exception. Just a few sprinkles the past few weeks. Things are dry. The milkweed in the garden has gone to seed in recent days and makes for an interesting subject to photograph.