once again posting old shit. this was last… march? before it dried out in the spring. Roy’s. I was there with Damaris, Grant, Sophie’s mom, and of course Sophie. Good day in the woods.
I’ve been neglecting my photography. building lots of things though; finished the keyboard i’m typing this on (typos are my fault, the board is great), mostly finished another small bag, shaped a couple knife blanks and hardened them. doing stuff for christmas and for myself. The house is a mess. Now that I’ve spent three days neglecting it I’ll have to spend two getting it back in shape. Laundry. Dishes. That sort of thing. If I time it right tomorrow I’ll still have a couple hours to go and finish that bag. Then I need to start designing the next one, which is a big departure for me. A backpack, for a big honkin’ lens. Not mine.
In fact, I think started thinking about this backpack on this day, back in March. So, if you want a bag from me, that’s the kind of lead time I have. About 9 months to start patterning and prototyping.
That may get worse here pretty soon. Gonna have some things going on in 2024 that will oblige me to convalesce. Take it very easy. I’m going to be getting a new kidney, and at some point they’ll also have to take the old ones out. Yes, I know that’s not normal. Anyway, the hope is that after all that, plus recovery, plus an amount of exercise, I’ll have some measure of my old energy and strength back. No more gout, for one.
Anyway. This is a very wordy post! don’t get used to it. or do. maybe I’ll write about the experience of getting a transplant. maybe do some kind of photo thing with it. we’ll see.
Posted on 2023-12-14T10:16:57Z GMT
I had these edited last thursday, exported, and then forgot about them. This was the week before we left for europe for vacation. Anyway, just before that happened, Kawan came back to town. Not just for a visit this time, but really moving back. It’s really great to have him around, at least as much as we manage to see each other, being like, busy people with Important Things™ to do like having a job so we can sleep indoors and making silly art or other interesting objects.
I feel like I used to see people more often? Maybe this is the last bit of pandemic recovery, re-finding my social calendar. People matter, and I miss seeing a lot of them. Towards that end, tomorrow there’s an Odd Salon, which is always a highlight, just a bunch of delightful folks. Anyway, if you actually want to hang out, get @ me.
ok gonna push publish and go to bed bye
Posted on 2023-12-05T10:10:18Z GMT
A lot of the time, moving through the world, I just think, like, oh, that’s interesting, take a single frame, and move on. It’s one of my worst/best habits, because really I end up with like, pictures of fences and random signs and things that aren’t part of any story. Also, a single frame is almost never the photo. Or at least the first one isn’t.
I may have talked about this before, but there’s this thing called ‘working the subject’ where you take one picture, move around, take several more, different compositions, points of focus, and really nail down what attracted you to take the picture in the first place. If you think of photography as asking questions, this is the first one: why did I want to take a picture of that?
But/and, I also find it natural and normal to work this way; take a moment, compose a single photo, get it, and move on. I don’t think either way of working is less valid, but I do know the overall quality of my work goes up when I work a subject a little. That’s the way I see it, anyway. There’s a braggadocio school that says you should only need one shot, but we can dispense with the macho bullshit, just between you and me, right? Like, maybe someone is good enough to get it in one. Or maybe they stopped at one and just have no idea where a little exploration would have taken them.
Really, for me, it’s a bad habit I learned early on, when I only had one roll of film at a time, or one a week to shoot. Film was expensive, processing was also expensive, at least until I discovered the magic of the 11-reel developing can in college. That and bulk rolling black and white film changed everything. Not worrying about running out was incredibly freeing. But sometimes I still fall back into that scarcity mindset.
It’s not film or even hard drive space that’s scarce these days, but my time. Do I have time to pause and take 20 photos of an unpainted picket fence? Probably; at 4.5 frames a second (max speed for the Leica), that’s less than 5 seconds. Really working, though, it’s closer to two minutes. It might not be 20 photos, but 10 wouldn’t be out of the question. When I intellectualize it, think about it and put it into words, it doesn’t sound like much at all.
Of course, I don’t work with words when I make pictures, and there’s the rub. I’m just feeling my way through all this. The scarcity mindset is a trauma response of sorts; doesn’t just go away. I’m not a psych, so I don’t know what to do with that, other than keep shooting and try to remember that there’s plenty of time and space for what I need to do.
Posted on 2023-11-27T10:04:21Z GMT
I usually try to break these up, but it’s turkey day, and I don’t have anything else really queued up at the moment. I ran through these and cut out all the really boring ones, just for you, dear reader. Amsterdam is a weird little town, at least in the hot center where we were staying. I may have explained this before, but I was there because Sophie’s work brought her out, and I found a deal on a multi-city ticket; with the free hotel it ended up not costing very much at all. Working east coast hours meant I had the mornings to sleep in and the dinner hour hardly starts when I would sign off. Really quite pleasant.
But back to the town, and its weirdness: the tourists were kind of the worst? I’m pretty sure I talked about how bad the sidewalks were in the mornings. But also: every dutch person I met had an air of practicality, of business. Well, except the poor waitstaff at ever restaurant, who were just Tired.
There’s something to that, the weird dichotomy of excess and practicality. I don’t know. Lots of bikes, too.
A bridge made of 3d printed stainless steel. Red light district.
Posted on 2023-11-24T07:41:22Z GMT
This is almost just a dump of the photos. Almost. My friend Ash recently reported a story from the border, where they’re just dumping people (asylum seekers, but people first) on the side of the road, exposed to the elements. Freezing cold, no supplies from their captors. Local volunteers are bringing meals and water. Just a really terrible situation.
And anyway, Ash also writes for the NPPA; inasmuch as someone can have a column in an e-newsletter, they have a column. And in it, they asked for pictures of better, happier things. Amsterdam in the midsummer isn’t exactly a warm hug, but it is nicer than all of that.
Anyway. Like I alluded to in the last post, I’m trying to catch up now that it’s the end of the year. There are so many photos I never posted, not just of this year but of the last decade. Some kind of problem. But anyway, for now, the focus is on what I shot this year. Still got everything that happened in Italy and Portugal, and everything since. Are they events? just random photos? I don’t know.
I really need to make a tighter edit of these, but this is where I got to in the several months since the trip. I think if I had a thesis, some core of meaning, I could put together a really tight 10 images. Amsterdam in Bikes, maybe.
It’s thanksgiving, by about two hours. Pies are baked. I should be in bed. I think that’s all the words I have in me for now. I’ll probably get better at it as I get back in the habit of doing this.
Today’s poem: The Laughing Heart, Charles Bukowski. I may or may not make that a regular bottom-of-the-post feature, I only know like five poems.
but that one is a good one.
Posted on 2023-11-23T10:58:19Z GMT
