enough about you...

While the carpentry projects continue, linger, advancing oh so slowly, but steadily, there are others that present themselves. This guy, Spathiphyllum floribundum,

blossoms only every other year or so, and you don't see the spadix unless you lie on the floor and look up at the plant. The latest idea is a time lapse of one of these blossoms opening. I don't know when it happens, perhaps even during the night. So it's set up in the studio with a one second interval. Tomorrow morning, when I have to clear out the room, should tell whether anything has transpired. Then it's back to the deck, to the final missing component.

beer:30

Carpentry time, once again. It's something I know how to do. But inevitably there's going to be some maintenance involved. It's no longer a piano - or the box it came in - but might be approaching a boat.

It was a tough day Friday: went to exchange some 5/4 mahogany for lengths that will work much better for the top of the handrail, which required yet another drive to Zion Crossroads. But at least Cody worked out an $8.92 refund.

2 important tools for any construction job

My layout drawing for the convex curve made me fairly confident that I could get the four required pieces out of the expected 1'-1" x 15'-1" board. This did not take into account the inevitable cracks and gouges created by careless lift truck drivers spearing the material with their forks as they move it around the yard. And as inevitable as these defects are, it goes without saying that they always appear at the center of the piece of material, usually in a location that cannot be cut out. In this case I had two curved pieces laid out along the length of the board, so naturally one of the apexes of the curves had to hit on the defect. Nor had I expected that one end of the material would be 13 inches wide and the other would be only 12-1/2. All of this to explain that three of the four pieces were indeed cut to the required size. But the fourth falls off the edge of the board and so may be something like six inches short of the desired length. Oh well, there are only so many things one can take into account, without making an offering to Murphy. I've got enough material to make the complete curve, but the joints may not fall where I wanted them, on support posts.

a bubbly beverage

"Seltzer" - 15 January 2012

how many eggs?

Here's one of my submissions for last week's 1 Minute Movie. There was only a little cheating.

The rules:

• exactly one minute long
• no camera movement
• no edits
• no music or credits

Yet another example of the inordinate amount of time required to create images, especially of the moving variety. Not that I'm complaining, or that anyone really cares. But for the record, it was probably an hour and a half set up for one minute of screen time, although there were four takes, four eggs. I was told after that I would need to go buy some more if I was planning on continuing with more versions.

Too bad I haven't learned how to crack an egg yet.

a little time - a whole lotta diggin'

Some time later...

The "jack it up" methodology was ill informed. But we got 'er dun.

When's it going to start sinking again?

no easy way out

To those who believe there are easy fixes to life's problems, I offer these photos of a project that has been put aside for months, maybe even years. No big deal. Nothing some money and a little time can't solve.

Just jack it up, the optomists suggested. It's been sinking for ten years. What's to keep it from sinking again? Which is why we end up with this bathtub sized slab of concrete:

"Just jack it up!"

roscoe day 5

 

By this point we had completed everything in the script except for three scenes. It looked to be a long, complicated day of exteriors, followed by four or five hours in a studio where I'd never worked before. Realizing that there was a good chance of not being able to finish on what was scheduled to be our final day before the camera, the producer in me decided to change locations to somewhere eminently more manageable: our back yard.

The scene in which the Professor balks at going any farther went from getting his coat snagged on a branch to jumping through some tall grass across a hidden trickle of water. A better solution, and much simpler to execute, was to use the small channel on our side yard. It's one of my favorite locations anyway, and have been photographing it off and on for the past four months.

This compromise was an improvement I feel good about. The scene was completed with no wasted time or undue effort, no need to drive to another location, and set up multiple times in an inaccessible field. The equipment then got transfered to a new location a minute away and 100 feet from the back door of the house. As I was considering where to set the camera again, the precipitation that had held off so far began. We moved everything to the breezeway and waited. Ralph and I have been through this waiting game many times before, so this was nothing unusual. After 30 or 40 minutes of steady rain, and checking with everyone present that they could return the following morning, I cancelled our afternoon schedule. It's still a wrenching call to make, especially since I knew the rain would probably cease within an hour.

Which of course it did. But by then everyone was long gone. It would have been too long a wait to ask everyone to sit through. Instead it gave Craig and me some time to search for props and pick up the wheel chair for our evening interior.

in pre production

Looks like we've got a script and at least one of two actors. Here are some possible locations not too far from home, not close enough. I'm sorely tempted to make it so that we could shoot the entire project in the back yard.

Sorry to be so typically vague, but at least I know what I mean. At least, I think I do.

More as we progress towards the first fictional piece I've worked on in...24 years. Too long, that's for certain. No details other than a tentative schedule of early July.

what the world needs now

Is more cat imagery for the internet. Glad I can oblige, here at the end of our winter season. Much precipitation during the last 24 hours, fortunately none of it frozen.

pond in "the forest" pt. 2

Several weeks later, it appears as if winter has indeed loosened its grip.

Tech note: this photo comes from a 25 year old Nikon 24mm lens on a Canon 7D body. The Nikon glass, with an adaptor, is a lot less expensive than current models of Canon lenses. But this was purchased primarily for use as a video device, an example being the previous entry.

nothing's changed

Being rather out of the loop musically, it's only last night that I first heard this song by James McMurtry. It dates from 2004, some years before the current problems of the world were quite so obvious. Of course it's a simplistic analysis of what was going on at the time. It's only a song. But the raw pain, and complexity of the situation presented is something that few writers of music seem willing to go anywhere near.

An English version, of sorts, is here. Thanks to Dave Leeke for the reference.

CAN'T MAKE IT HERE ANYMORE

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their shit don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the damn little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat shit, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why

In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

3 sibs 2010

KW, JHW, RW

Only a year ago, this is what we looked like. Remarkable progress, I'll have to say.

I asked for readers to share their family photos last year. Unfortunately no one took me up on it. How about this year? Anyone?

howdy, pardner

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A fine and dandy how-do to one and all on this gray Sunday morning, finally some respite from the July heat.

wondering - or is it wandering

How Cats Do Laundry from Man Made Wilderness on Vimeo.

The time function for these kinds of things is still all out of proportion for the result. But learning new bits and means of expression is stimulating, at the very least. The point was to try to put something together in a day. I almost made the deadline. Pieces were recorded on Sunday, and by that evening I had some kind of an assembly put together. But it was another day to lay in the music, edit the picture to half it's original length, compress the file for Vimeo standards, and then upload.

BTW: all hand held with the Canon 7D using the live view. It's getting a little easier...

Oh, and it was H-O-T this past Sunday, in case you couldn't feel it.

now that it's receeding...

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More old news, but continuing in the trend of showing what the camera saw, here it is. Claire's is probably better.

never ending fascination

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thanks to CLW for this one

We've had a lot of this stuff around here lately, the cause of much consternation and anguish. Including a 50+ hour power outtage last weekend. Through that ordeal, we tried to maintain our humor - and some warmth as the interior temp of the house dipped into the 40's at night. Photography helped me through, so there are going to be some more of these pictures coming along in the near future.

What's the Story? or... Today's Rant

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From an unexpected source, I would imagine. This time I'm going to blame Apple, Inc.

If it hadn't been for the new laptop we purchased back in December, I wouldn't have found out about the ease of use of components such as iMovie and Garageband, bundled with the machine and which turn out to be more than merely functional. They are amazingly sophisticated tools that allow for a remarkable amount of user intervention. To the point that iMovie has rekindled the long dormant desire to make "movies," which back when I was still attempting such things we called "films" because they actually used long strands of film as the components in the final product. I gave up on that dream about the time Avid entered the marketplace with their high priced video editing paraphernalia.

Twenty + years later, "non linear editing" software combined with a simple laptop computer have become ubiquitous enough that without looking over my shoulder, I've gotten run over by the "video movement." Which is that everyone wants to make movies. In reality, the software/hardware manufacturers want us to make movies and succumb to our desires to tell stories. Look at the sales literature of the three 800 pound gorillas in the field of NLE software - Apple, Adobe, Avid - and then again at the literature of the dominant hardware lions - Sony, Canon, Nikon - and what they steadfastly insist is the reason for the dispersal of their tools is the need to tell stories.

I say fuck the storytellers, excuse my "French." Many of us are image makers who have refined the ability to tell a story with a single image, or evoke emotions or intellectual curiosity that don't rely upon the repetition of clichéd elements. I won't deny that stories are what captivate us, but as still photographers we've learned to show subtle qualities in a more economical manner than is possible with motion pictures. Movies are incredibly seductive. Given the opportunities, everyone would work on or make them. But the power of the still photograph is still immense. We read and experience them in a different part of the mind and soul. Perhaps it's a place of greater abstraction, one that requires less clarification. But it also empowers the sheer joy of seeing the world - which doesn't require a story or a moving documentary to explain.

Despite this tirade, no doubt I will continue to investigate the hardware/software knockout that has brought incredibly sophisticated motion picture capture tools within the reach of many of us in the comfortable, developed world.

Oh - and BTW, there is a man-made quality to this image: it's ice on a man made pond in a nearby development where we walk nearly every other day.

what was I thinking? (pt 54c)

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Some photographs are perfectly obvious upon viewing at any distance of time. The sunset was gorgeous, the animals were adorable, whatever. This one is more of a problem. What was the reason for the approach to the subject?

It wasn't the scenery I was looking at while wandering around in two feet of snow. The blanked out ground was erased from the composition, creating relationships between the visible elements that are not ordinarily evident. As mentioned previously, somewhat flippantly, I was most certainly attracted to the repaired crack in the concrete block wall, which signals movement of the ground beneath the corner of this building. It jags its way down the wall into the top of the fence, which leaves the two dimensional surface in an almost solid plane that turns 90 degrees and offers a barely opaque plane that disappears out of the frame, creating a tense imbalance. I think I actually saw all this while framing the view. And even more, that eludes me now, some three weeks after the fact.

For some other fascinating views of a walk in the snow, totally different from these, look at where Mauro Thon Giudici has been recently.

what was I thinking? (pt. 54b)

During our recent blizzard, despite my claims that I was never leaving the house again, the morning after my commutation ordeal I did indeed leave the house: long enough to carry a camera a distance of some quarter mile to observe whatever was (not) happening at the "center of town" and expose two rolls of film. On my way, there were some oddities that caught my attention. Looking at the exposures now, I wonder what I had in mind at the time. Maybe it was the cracks in the wall? Shapes in the starkness of the landscape? Or was it the snow on the fence? No, there's hardly any snow on the fence... It was the fence and the crack in the wall and the abstraction created by the two feet of snow. Yeah, that must be it. Whatever...

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I'd like to believe there is less of this sort of questioning going on as I do this photography thing longer. Surely if I can't figure out what I was after, there is little chance of demonstrating to anyone else what it was I was looking to display. Apparently I was "exercising my eye," but hadn't quite gotten warmed up yet. Ordinarily these kinds of exercises get edited out and shuffled into the contact sheet bin. Today I'm interested in the process of finding an image from a recent session that really works for me. We walk around and look and see, releasing the shutter any number of times, but only occasionally do we find subjects that really excite us. What is it that makes the spark?

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Better, but it's a fairly small crop from a 6 x 7 original. Couldn't get closer without trampling on the scene.

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Better still. But the spark didn't last, perhaps because I shortly after this went back inside, tired of struggling through knee high snow.

the 3 sibs

RDW; JHW; KMW; MoM in bkgnd

This is what we do on Christmas. Anybody want to share theirs?