The Kindness of Strangers
People give me things. For free. Mostly camera-related stuff.
I’m not sure why this is.
Early this week, I went to the local craft-supply store to get some picture-hanging stuff. I almost went to the other one in town, but I’m glad I didn’t!
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Voted “Best Photographer of Ventura County”!
It’s official! I’ve been voted “Best Photographer of Ventura County”, in the Ventura County Reporter’s annual readers poll.
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Magazine Cover
black and white photo in upper left is mine.
Just some quick self-horn-tooting: My photo called “Soccer Moment”, which won second place in the Ventura City Photo Contest, was also used on the ‘My Ventura’ adult education/recreational class schedule for the city. I didn’t know about it until someone said “hey isn’t that your son on the cover of this magazine?” Here’s the picture again:
An American.
I became an American citizen today.
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Fear at the Fair
A few weeks ago, my family attended the Ventura County Fair. At one point, my oldest sone (who’s five) pointed to a grown-up ride and said “can we go on that?” It looked innoculous enough. It’s just a set of swing-chairs suspended from long chains. You’re lifted up and spun around. Big deal. I was a little concerned the height might bother my son, but he seemed intent, and I could snap a few pictures.
The chairs lift off, and it’s fun! My son looks a little worried, but I reassure him all is well. But then…the speed picks up. Those chairs fly up and out, over empty space. And the worst part is that they swing back and forth, in and out. It suddenly occurs to me that those chains can’t possibly withstand the centrifugal force of a grown man.
I realize, for the first time in many years, I am scared to the point of panicking.
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Street Photography (or “I’m a Coward”)
Ironically, one of the things that originally made me look to photography as a hobby, and then as a career, is the genre called “street photography”. Street Photography is, as the name says, photography on the street. But it’s not about streets or buildings or sidewalks or cities—it’s about people. People going about their daily lives, interacting, strange coincidences caught on film, fleeting moments or expressions. It differs from ‘Street Portraiture’ because it’s not about going up to someone and saying “can I take your picture?” It’s about seeing a magic moment unfold, and capturing it before it’s gone.
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Second Place Winner—Ventura City Photo Contest
Soccer Moment
A few weeks ago it was announced that I had won second place for my photo Soccer Moment in the Take A Shot! City of Ventura Photo Contest. Actually I won twice: my photo won second place in both the ‘people’s choice’ voting, and the official judging.
The awards ceremony was this evening, but unfortunately I was unable to make it. I was stuck in LA, and couldn’t get back in time.
You can view all the winners here.
That’s my eldest son in the middle of the photo, with his mouth wide open.
Inspiration vs Perspiration
As a creative type (dare I say, “artist”?), I’m well aware of the bumpy ride that is creativity. When it comes to productivity and ‘output’, it’s feast or famine. Some days (weeks, years) you think of eight amazing ideas before breakfast, execute six of them before lunch, and have them finished and displayed before dinner. Other days…well, those days turn into weeks, months, years, with nothing to show except a lot of frustration.
I truly believe that without that ebb and flow (which sounds much nicer than “feast or famine”, doesn’t it?), you can’t be creative. It’s part of the process. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try and kickstart the process when in one of those lulls.
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Oops!
Well that was embarrassing.
I was in the middle of revising my website yesterday, and I went to check the latest revision I’d made. Suddenly, was seeing a generic “this domain registration has expired” page. What?? How could my domain name registration have expired?
Apparently both my safeguards had failed. I put the renewal dates of my domain registrations in my calendar. But I switched calendar software a few months ago, and had to enter everything manually. Apparently I’d missed one! Fortunately, the registrar always sends me tons of emails to remind me. And then send them to a special email address I’ve set up for that purpose. But wait…the forwarding system on my domain had gotten reconfigured a few months ago, and this special email was now being dumped into oblivion. Without my knowledge. So much for those warning emails!
I’ve owned domain names for probably eight years, and have had at least 15 of them over that time. I’ve never had this happen. And so of course it happens on the most important domain name of all, my business one.
Duh.
So if you experienced some email or website issues, that’s why. 50% bad luck, 50% idiocy. But it’s back!
Yousuf Karsh
Yes that’s right. When I’m not taking pictures, or thinking about pictures, I’m reading about pictures. Obsessive? No. I’m also a cyclist. Which means I’m well-rounded, right? (But not too well-rounded, which is why I cycle…)
So I’m reading Karsh: A Fifty Year Retrospective, which I got from the library. Most books are judged ‘good’ when you can’t put them down. But remember, a picture is worth a thousand or so words and all that. So with books on photographers, I’m sometimes overwhelmed with the images. I have to put the book down, so I can fully absorb what I’ve seen, before proceeding to the next set of images. Such is the case with this book.
Mind you, there are images where I’m yelling a loud mental WTF??! Like for example his portrait of Margaret Thatcher. He has her very small, at the bottom of the photo, with a large window dominating most of the shot. It’s almost insulting, to have the leader of the free world looking so forlorn and small in a portrait. [What's that? The United Kingdom isn't the leader of the free world? When did that change??]
And he has (had) and annoying tendency to place his subject smack dab (a photographic technical term) in the middle of the frame. Bull’s Eye! cry the photographers. Not all the time, mind you, but distressingly often for a ‘best of’ book.
But then you see a picture of Ernest Hemingway. Never mind the pictures of Winston Churchill that made him famous. There are the images of Nikita Khrushchev, Jacqueline and John F Kennedy, Fidel Castro and lesser luminaries. But it’s not just a matter of celebrity. He really does capture an essence of a person. While I’m sure I’m seeing only the 1% that mattered, it’s a heck of a 1%!
Everyone has something that will stop them in their tracks. For me, this is one of those somethings. How many books have you read that make you want to reinvent yourself?
