Last of the Greatest Generation

We buried my grandmother yesterday. My Mother's Mother, and last of my grandparents. Kind of weird, losing that whole line of ancestors. It means I move up a position in the line to become the next lost generation. She was 89, and part of the population that helped build our nation. She, like the rest of her peers, began life in poverty. Poverty by today's standards, but relative to the rest of the world, about average for the time. They worked hard all their lives, expecting little more than having their basic needs met, satisfied that they could fulfill their obligations to God, Family and Country.
I wondered, as we listened to the service yesterday, what my grandchildren might think of me and my generation, when it becomes their turn to bury us. It's a solemn duty, burying your ancestors. A duty I was honored to share with my son yesterday. I hope he pauses as I have, to reflect on the passage of one generation to the next, and the legacy each leaves for the next to build on.

Change..in the face of stagnation....

..or maybe it's the other way around. I'm not sure. While I can tell that big changes are occurring both inside and around me, I feel kind of stagnant. Maybe blocked is a better word. It's been a few years since I've had a "real" job, and while I'm thankful for a steady paycheck, I miss being able to take advantage of those brief moments of creative inspiration. I know as time moves along, I'll find a rhythm, and get back on my creative feet. Until then, I'll leave you with an image from a couple years ago. I feel like this vessel, waiting for the sun to shine again and get back underway.

 

Knock, Knock. Who's There? The NCDOT!

    I catch some flack from my more liberal friends when I complain that the Government has become too big. Too invasive. Too wasteful. It seems there's no money in the state budget for things like textbooks, art education, or mental health care. Well, don't tell the Department of Transportation. They seem to have plenty. While most of us struggle to make the mortgage, they have a truck with four guys sticking orange signs up on the sidewalk, only to come back around an hour later, same four guys, same three in the truck same ONE removing said signs. There also seems to be plenty of funding to widen a road that never seemed too narrow to begin with.
    About two years ago, our neighbors completely gutted and remodeled their house. Last week the NCDOT hauled it away in dumpsters. It kinda went like this:

First you get a letter saying: "Thanks for taking care of our property, now get out, we're coming to tear it down."

Then they bring in a large piece of equipment.

 Then you watch 15 years of hard work and sacrifice get put into a dumpster and hauled away.

No big deal, really.

Most folks just go on about their day.

Now some of these road projects are needed. I-40/I-77 interchange. I-40/Hwy21 interchange. But the project at Exit 50, East Broad seems to be a huge waste of money. Enough money will be spent on this project to put plenty of textbooks, plenty of teachers, plenty of mental health resources in the hands of those who need it. Make no mistake. We are taxed plenty. The problem is Raleigh's politically misguided use of the funds already in their possession.

Stepping off the soap box..for now.

What a week!

    First of all, let me just say how much I enjoy life; just being alive every day is a blessing. The arc of the sun across the sky, the daily art exhibition from the supreme architect. To experience creation is to experience life. Being a creation, and passing the act along does a great service to our creator.

    Much has been written about receiving blessings from the universe. Knock and the door shall be opened, Ask and you shall receive, etc.. the trick is avoiding the powerfully creative weapon our minds are. If we get too focused on the wanting, then that is exactly what we create. Want. "I want this, I want that". Want is exactly what we create.

    Sometimes we have to let go of the thing that's holding us back, redefine our true passion, and wait for an answer. When the door opens, then we have the choice to walk through or not. Getting out of our mind and following the heart is difficult. From the day we're born, the world tries to break us of the habit. Stay in line, don't make a fuss, if you're happy, you must be doing it wrong. I say Bullshit! What if our only obligation is to the one who created us, and his instructions include enjoying this beautiful experience which has been so conveniently placed before us.

    When my time here comes to an end, I know there will be a final conscious thought. I don't think it'll be "Man, I wish I'd been more obedient", or "I may have been a bit too happy". I plan for it to be " Man, that was fun; Let's do it again!"

The picture for today's post is me, and two other happy people, engaged in the joyous act of creation. Thanks Katy, Rob, Karen, Bob, and all the other folks in my life who allow me to create.

A case for lo-tech.

    I was having a conversation this week about film photography versus digital. Actually, in my world, it's an ongoing conversation. The point of this particular "thread" was that, as digital photographers, we've become lazy. At first, I was defensive. I started in film, I understand the basics, digital just enhances the workflow, etc.. Another photographer, a while back, who also started in film, but now shoots all digital, dared us to shoot one session a week with the LCD display covered up on our cameras; the way we used to shoot film. At first, I thought is was a stupid idea, but have come to realize how smart it is. 

    The point is technology does make us lazy. Worse than that, it may actually be causing parts of our brain to de-volve. Nature is very efficient, and if something is not being used, she'll find some other use for it. I'm not going back to film, but I might just shoot some images with the back of my camera covered up, just to keep that part of my brain from withering away. I simply can't afford to lose any more of it.

   So, anyway, the image. One of my grandfathers probably forged this right there on the farm. It served exactly the function for which it was intended, no more, no less. Very efficient. three generations later, it waits, still ready to perform. It never needed any additional energy, it never had a software malfunction, and it didn't even have an owner's manual. Yet, it will outlive it's creator, but not it's purpose.

Three for One

       In an attempt to catch up some on my posting, I'm including four images today. I think that'll still have me a bit behind, but I'll catch up later. I've had two model shoots this week and both produced some good images. One was a fashion shoot, kinda hip and trendy. The other was a fine art shoot, female form, bodyscapes. The bodyscape shoot contains some mild nudity, so those are posted last. That way you can skip them if it's a problem. 

Open Doors

    As long as I've been a photographer, I've wanted to make movies. The creative opportunity that photographs offer is magnified tremendously in motion pictures. When Barbara introduced the idea of working as a background, I really didn't understand the potential doors that might open.

    Being on the set of a major production has opened my eyes to the scale of artistic ideas in the world. It also broke down some of the mystical barriers I had imagined. The realization of a creative vision is the same for each artist. To have an idea in your head, either visually, verbally, musically, or any other, and see that vision brought to life is what art is all about. It's the creative process. While, to me assembling 50 wedding guests, or a family of four for a portrait still seems daunting, these guys create daylight where, before it was night. They change the weather, even the town you're in. To coordinate 300 people on set over the course of a day only to come away with seconds of finished product has really opened my eyes to the bigger world of artistic process.

A Little Behind

    I realize that I missed two days posting, so I promise to catch up over the next couple of days. Not that anyone besides me is keeping score, but it does matter. For today, I'll share this image from the homestead cabins over on Museum Road. 

Model Session

    I shot a model session last night for a young lady in Mooresville. We had a blast and got some pretty cool pictures to boot. This blog has, so far, been artsy pictures. I thought I'd share this portrait to change the mix a little. Tracey has been out of modeling for a couple years and wants to start back up. Hopefully  the images from last night will help her out.

Papaw White's Shed

     At my Aunt's suggestion, we stopped out at my Grandparents' old house to shoot pictures of the old buildings and such. Turns out there was quite a bit of stuff there to look at and as I was under-dressed for the cold, we cut the visit short. I did come away with a few good shots, and an appetite for more. This image is from inside one of the buildings where Papaw White kept his tools. He loved Mules and used them to plow even after he didn't need to anymore. I think after another visit or two, I could come up with a pretty good collection if images from the place. I'll add it to the list of ideas.

 

I'm excited. This week I was asked to install some of my local images in a busy government office downtown. While it's not a paying gig, it is for sure a confidence booster, which I sorely need at this point. I think I'll use this image in a 12"X33" because it will fill a great portion of one of the walls, and you don't see many photos that proportion. Anyway, that's the post for today. Have a great weekend.

Another Sunset Picture

 

     Today is the first day this week that I didn't wake up in the fog of a migraine. I started having these blinding headaches when I was about 11. My first memory of one is from the fifth grade, when I was struggling to finish a report on the presidents, and it hurt so bad to open my eyes, that I was in tears through most of the night. As I've gotten older, I've learned to watch for triggers. Changes in weather are the worst. An approaching low pressure system, or an established high pressure will do it. Most of the drugs that can help also dull me to the point of being useless anyway.

    I'm not telling this to whine, it actually leads to an interesting story. It seems quite few creative types historically suffered from these things; Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carrol, and Van Gogh, to name a few. Not to compare myself to those guys artistically, but if I had to give up this crazy personality I've come to enjoy, in order to prevent the headaches, I don't think I'd trade. Ms. Dickinson actually produced most of her work just on the trailing edge of the worst part of the headaches.

    In researching this crazy migraine phenomenon, I stumbled on this organization out of D.C. that promotes research and advocates for the rights of sufferers. I don't remember the name of the group right off, and it's not important to the telling of the story anyway. the founder is , get this, a photographer. He also happens to have been a member of the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, one of my favorite places in the world. Small world. While I'm not a huge fan of his photography, he has been very successful with it. He has placed it in numerous collections in the D.C. area, and been in many juried museum exhibits throughout the world. I never really developed a taste for Dickinsosn's poetry either, something about the rhythm, I think.

    Anyway, about the picture. Sunsets are, by nature, difficult to photograph. It's even harder to photograph them well. I've shot literally thousands of frames of sunrises and sunsets, and have yet to capture one that is as beautiful as the moment was in real life. I don't usually share the images because of that. They just don't measure up to the test of evoking some emotional response. I shared this one today because of the moment, not really the photo itself. This sunset was from our recent Oak Island trip, and was a really great ending to a beautiful day, which is what each sunset should be, everyday.

Time Machine

Some of the re-enactors at Ft. Dobbs built this cabin. I've always thought it would be a great shot to catch it in the snow like this. I framed it so as to remove any signs of the current time, power lines road signs, etc. Standing there in the cold snow, the quiet, no cars, all alone it seemed real. Looking through the viewfinder was like looking through a time portal. There is a lot of energy out there at the Fort. 

It also happened that on the same day I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown over the bills, that I sold a print of this image through a friend's Facebook page and my Redbubble Site. The net proceeds of the single sale won't be all that much, but the effect on my state of mind was priceless. Thanks, Cindy and Gracie. 

What Lies Beyond

I was out taking pictures in the snow yesterday and stepped inside one of the buildings over at the homestead model at the museum. There was this really cool light pouring in through the cracks in the logs. It was like I was a voyeur observing the snow event but hidden from it at the same time. In the final image, it's hard to say what's going on outside.  But it does make you wonder what's on the other side. Ironically, I had been at the cemetery prior to this stop.

Clock and Moon

I've always liked this image. Back in about 2002, I had a conversation in just about this same spot with a friend. We talked about Statesville and I was anxious to become part of the downtown culture. So I did. after many sunrises and sunsets over this clock, I'm happy to move on to another phase. Sometimes, though, I miss this sight. The quiet mornings as the small town wakes up, and the evenings as it slowly goes back to sleep.

Blue(ish) Skies

The sky is a hard image to convey with a photograph. Ansel Adams said that anyone could convey what they saw with a photograph. The challenge is to convey what one felt in that moment with a photograph. I didn't use quotations because it's a rough paraphrase, and Adams wasn't the first to verbalize the idea. This could lead to a long discussion on the duality of existence, but suffice to say that the blue sky would be underappreciated without a few clouds to remind us of the coming, or the past, rains.

Wild Oats

I suppose this will be the last image from Oak Island..for now. I've taken lots of images of sea oats and never have gotten the one I wanted. There's something so stark about them they're like the last line of vegetation on the continent. I like the resolute way they hold their position on the dunes, almost daring someone to knock them down. I'll keep taking pictures of them til I get the one I want.

After all of the effort of trying to create the perfect composition, sometimes you just walk up on something cool. Nothing fancy about today's image. No rules of thirds, none of that art class jargon. I just pointed the camera and shot the feather. It was just last night that I looked at the image and saw a sort of zen message. I've always been fond of flying. 

Gray Beach

Just got back from Oak Island after our second annual New Year visit with friends. This trip has quickly become a favorite and I hope the second of what is to become many. It's a perfect time to just stop, breathe,  and start again. It's kind of like marking your page in a book, closing it for a minute to digest what you've read, then opening it back up to resume. The difference is that instead of reading this book, we're writing it.

Today's image is not a typical beach shot. Where yesterday's was bright and full of color, today's is a bit less warm. Same beach, different day. Life's kinda like that, bright and sunny one day, a little overcast the next. Either way it's always interesting and it's always good. Time to write the next chapter. Make it a good one.

Blue House, Blue Sky

Today's image is simple. Beautiful in its simplicity, though. Life can be like that, simply beautiful. We watched a movie the other night set in a post apocalyptic world and one of the characters made the comment that things we used to throw away, people are killing each other for now. It's important to know what's truly important in our lives. The answer is usually simpler than we might think.

Catching Up

    I'm posting two images today. That way, I'm back on track. 4th day of the year, 4 images. The topic is about being in the moment. Last night, Diana and I shared a beautiful moment with good friends , Barbara and Jack. Jack built a wonderful, warm fire on the beach(we had a permit so it was legal) and we sat and enjoyed the quiet peace of a winter beach. As far as I could see, there was no-one else on the beach in either direction. This is a straight section here, so that's quite a lot of beach. Though it was in the low 30's, none of us noticed the cold. In this world, there are few opportunities to get a glimpse into what life might have been like before all of our modern distraction. Last night was one of those rare opportunities.

    I'm also posting a picture of a dog with this simple thought: If we could only live life like a dog, we would appreciate the simple pleasures in life much more.  

Daily post

In an attempt to be more prolific as a photographer, I plan to post a picture a day to the blog. Some of these may be really great artistic achievements. Some will not. Some may contain nudity, so be warned. I'm already behind, but here's my second one this year, on the third day of the year. It's a thunderstorm that had just passed over Hilton Head Island in October when we were down for a wedding shoot. Not a great shot, but a pretty cool time, none the less.

New Year's Day

Day one of 2011. Day one as a blogger. I don't know if I'll use this much, but it's a place to pursue random thoughts, post ideas and maybe a picture or two. I don't really understand the advantage over Facebook, but I'll start anyway.

If you subscribe to mine, I'll subscribe to yours.