Natalie Merchant - The Sleepy Giant

I've had a wild ride of a week, and what's helped me plug through is a CD set my friend Leann gave me recently, Natalie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep. You wouldn't think that setting nursery rhymes to music would engage, well, big people. As a matter of fact I think that, given the lyrics of some, they're far more enjoyable to big people. The best thing about the release is that instead of the usual liner notes, there's actually a small book of the nursery rhymes with a short bio on each of the writers. So you get to sing along to Bleezer's Ice Cream when she rattles off all twenty-eight flavors of ice cream - which you will want to do. But her range, from sad to amusing; from blue grass to ballad to kletzmer and carnival, is a wild ride of it's own.



What have you been listening to?

Deep Play

In 1938, a fellow named Johan Huizinga wrote a book called Homo Ludens (“Man the Player”), which would change the way we view art for all of history. He asserted that cultural pursuits, particularly the act of making art, were based on play. This is not unique to any culture or race. This element of play, necessary to the perpetuation of culture, separates it from other pursuits because of the spirit with which it is pursued. That is not to say that creativity is silly or frivolous. Far from it. Play can be quite a serious matter; it is in essence creating a world, but unlike other aspects of society such as politics, war, or the judicial system (only to name a few) the outcomes rarely, if ever, cost people their lives.

In 1999, Diane Ackerman wrote a book called Deep Play, (don’t worry, there won’t be a test), and takes Huizinga’s theory a step further. She suggests that the act of losing oneself in a creative endeavor is what makes us exquisitely human. “Furthermore,” she says, "Deep play is an absence of mental noise -- liberating, soothing, and exciting. . . .We spend our lives in pursuit of those moments of feeling whole, or being in the moment of deep play."

Are we to believe that Flaubert, O’Keefe, Kandinsky, and Cartier-Bresson all created a world through play? (shrug) Why not?

Pairing Pictures: Turquoise

You remember back in December when I learned that Pantone would make 2010 the year of turquoise? (Wow, I wish I'd worked on that shot a little more ...) Well, I thought I'd do a little homage to turquoise.

I'm thinking August is the month for orange. August feels orange to me. What color do you think August is?

Texture and Pattern

It seems everywhere I go these days, I spot opportunities to capture texture and pattern in HDR. The problem is that you can't just stop your car in the middle of a highway where there is no place to pull off, whip out your camera and tripod and set up the perfect shot. So I try to take advantage of the few spots that do allow this behavior. And since HDR requires a bit of compulsiveness, I often visit these spots more than once like an old friend. Though unlike an old friend, it seems the conversation changes little from one visit to another.

Black & White

Hi friends. As crazy I am about color, I'm on a black & white kick today. There's something both soothing and energizing about reducing images to simple lines, patterns and textures without color complicating things. Don't you think?

Où est ma tête? - Pink Martini

When I first moved to Columbus, there was this great rumor going around that I had lived in Paris for two years, I learned years later. Oh yes, I just hung out at Le Café de Flore, drinking coffee and filling my sketch book with amusing depictions of other patrons. Okay, I didn't. But if I had to start a rumor about myself, that would be the one.

Happy Bastille Day!
(Video from Sevenmao)

Architectural Salvage

Over the weekend, I visited Columbus Architectural Salvage, which has to be one of the coolest places to visit in Central Ohio. Aside from worrying about what has happened to the houses where all these things came from, I find myself wondering about the stories they could tell. Exactly how many pairs of shoes did this shoe form help create? And were these Ball jars used to can peaches or tomatoes? Don't get me started on the door knobs ...

The fig picture is a special gift for my dear friend Leann who gave me a fig tree for my last birthday. Isn't she a genius?

Decay and HDR

I've been visiting some pretty interesting places to capture HDR-worthy shots this week. I know that some people like to use HDR to capture shiny post-modern buildings or exotic landscapes, but that's just not my thing. I like to go under bridges and to industrial parts of town where you meet interesting people and their pets. (My artist/photographer friend, Darrin, seems to find all the best places) Yesterday, I was approached - no rushed at - by a dog barking, "I want to eat you alive, starting with your face." while the owner told me, "Don't worry, he's friendly." No he's not. Friendly dogs wear bandannas, everybody knows that.

Anyway, there are many ways to achieve an HDR shot, some more complicated than others. I arrived at these shots by using 'the poor man's HDR' which means that I took two shots at different exposures, put one layer over the other and masked out over- or under-exposed elements to make a more uniformly focused and exposed image. I confess, I rather like the saturation and detail you get with these techniques. Did I really just say that? 

Rufus Wainwright - Oh What A World

My husband and I rented The Aviator last weekend (theWainwright family figured prominently is the musical score), so I've been having quite the Wainwright week. I couldn't resist watching the extras about the music that was scored for the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's, all starring one member or another of the Wainwright family, which really made the film authentic to the times. They all have this wonderful stage presence, don't they?