i sometimes suspect the titles of my posts are promising a little more than they deliver...not sure why i feel the need to try and be clever or something....almost like when i was a teenager and made my own mixed tapes - i had to give them some cool sounding title that conjures up an evocative image or a feeling that sums up the essence of the whole - i suppose it might just be the part of me that loves reading, writing and art - why not get creative, play with language and form and imagery whenever you can...just for the joy of it, just because you can
maybe also because i felt like, despite feeling kind of frustrated/disillusioned/dis-spirited about work, i made some pictures this week that i was okay with and that had something to them that made me want to keep looking, that gave me a feeling more than just showing something
like, tuesday, before soccer, i had to go feature hunting for a weather picture - it got summery warm earlier this week, but that wasn't the impetus behind this one - it was the accompaniment to an end of summer recap on how the summer weather rated this year
found a couple little boys outside playing football in their neighborhood - hadn't been finding much, but i thought this had kind of the nice mix of warm outdoor activity and the fall sports thing all working together, so i was kind of happy to stumble upon them - not to mention, the clock til soccer time was winding down and i'd found nothing yet
as i hung out more, i made a couple frames that go back to that "feel" i like and that i really need to be making as often as possible - when i go for a while without it, it's almost like getting dehydrated - i feel like i'm so incredibly lacking and wanting, and everytime i shoot and come up short in that regard, it's like going to the well and getting handed a big glass of buttermilk
so, here are the two pix i liked - nothing stellar, not anything i feel completely geeked about, but not buttermilk for me, either
but, there's always the day to day, and you take what you get and do what you can with it...
soldier visits elementary school class that is adopting him and will correspond throughout the year - at least he sat down with all the kids seated around him, as opposed to the usual standing at the front of the classroom scenario
later, went to shoot a meeting between staff of the community college and visiting staff from a school in China - they hope to develop an exchange program and talked about their various programs, followed by a campus tour, which is what we wanted to shoot - their talk went really long, so the tour got cut short, but i tried to find a moment in there somewhere
then it was back to be assistant for a portrait Bryan was doing on some guys who are part of a Star Wars character group - since i was the one holding the key light, we came up with a new nickname for me - "K-boom!"
next day was grandparents day at a school - got there and it was pretty hectic - donuts, cocoa and coffee after morning mass, kids and grandparents everywhere in the gym - tried scoping out a family that was interactive, but everyone was just so all over the place, it was kind of tough, but i came upon this grandpa giving his grandson a goodbye hug, so, whew! that worked
then i was off to do a portrait of 3 people who went on a mission trip to Egypt last summer - they were meeting with the reporter for an interview, and we scheduled me to come after an hour to shoot, and i had a half hour til the one lady had to get back to class to teach...so, i get there and they're still talking - no big deal, i probably don't need a whole half hour for this, but i'm wondering where in the world we will go to do this, cos' they're meeting in an office in the parish hall - i.e., officey-looking room with a large table with a bowl of plastic fruit on it, and i'm looking around as they continue to talk, and then it's like, well, we should probably do this foto, cos' i gotta go in 10 minutes....whaaaaat? 10 minutes? holy crap - and of course, they all look at me and say - where do you want to do this?
well, in an ideal world, we'd be doing this in that garbage dump slum neighborhood in cairo, but as we're in a school office in monroe, michigan, gee, let me look around...
so i go out in the hallway,
and i see a paper jesus surrounded by paper cut-out children taped to the wall and the words "will you follow me"
and so i did,
and in my remaining 5 minutes to set up lights and shoot, here ya go
the weekend started with sports, and then i went off to shoot something called "flyball," which i'd never even heard of before - basically, it's dog team relay races - dogs race down a lane, jumping over small hurdles, grab a tennis ball and race back, trying to beat the other team
so, the challenge here is, they do this inside, and the event is essentially radically back-lit by the large open wall at one end of the building, and inside, where it's significantly darker, these dogs are probably running about 50 mph - no kidding, maybe not exactly that fast, but these dogs were FAST! so, exposure-wise, this is a complete nightmare...
and they're all so geeked up to run like a bat out of hell, that the whole building is an echoing cavern of constant barking....
so i walk in, watch it, and i'm just like what the hell?????!!!
how do i shoot this?!
i fact, i had to stop to text Bryan - "i'm at flyball, all i can say is WTF?!"
how do i shoot this?!
well, not very well, as you can see by the results
but, it is what it is, to re-use that over-used phrase
and there you have it, the yin to my yang of the week's worth of shooting
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