Sunday, August 31, 2008

Shed, Lightning, 1113 E. Jefferson, Charlottesville


Click above for a larger view

This was a time exposure during a lightning storm. It was taken through the rear window of my apartment on East Jefferson Street, Charlottesville. There was a very strong lightning storm going on during the exposure. This was taken 4X5 inch Tri-X film.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Drive by Movie

I’ve been taking time exposures from a moving car for some time. Many can be found somewhere or other in this blog’s history. The more recent additions to what I’ve tended to call “The Car Series,” (just because it makes it sound important or something) have been in color. The way all those signs reach out for our attention is with vibrant color.
Or, what’s left of our attention : ) . The retailers are trying to bedevil us with all their blinky little do-dads.
Anyway, I began to think of stringing together some of those into a movie. They are all tripod mounted time exposures, so the framing of the car windows provides continuity between shots. Strung together they are really a time-lapse study of smeared moments. These particular sets of moments were from driving through Barracks Road Shopping Center, here in Charlottesville, although I’m sure it looks a lot like the mall in your town.
Unfortunately, It plays small in I. E., and some code leaks out in Firefox. Nerd Credentials = codebase 0. You can try this link; http://deasy.com/dreams/image/car3.swf It does require the Flash Player.

NAME="DriveBy" ALIGN="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash"
PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Work



Click on the image for a larger view

Work

Ever notice how some of the really big concepts have short words assigned to them; life, death, love, sex, cash, fun, God, tax. And so there’s work. This is my work photograph.

Well, it was just a lamp at a party, in Chestertown Md. I happened to look over at the table to my right in one of the lulls in the conversation. A thoroughly incorrect lamp.

A guy with his hands full, and his view obscured. Essentially, I suggest that as a
definition of work.
I could go on; Kabuki theatre with masks tightened around faces. But, I should cool out, there have been good times and good people encountered there.

So many generations of workers have gone by. There has to be, by now, a thoroughly genetic component. We were born to work.

There were people I knew from my school years that did not have to work when they graduated. They all ended up working anyway. A few took a good idea and that grew into an opportunity for a parcel of other people who did need to work. One of them grew so concerned about his responsibilities to his employees that he got thoroughly stressed (and an ulcer). An interesting case.
A piece of work. We all end up a piece of work, for better or for worse.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

A Man Outstanding in His Woods



Click for larger image . . .

Ok, so it is another self portrait . . .

And it is also a perfect example of what happens when you tilt the lens on a 4X5 view camera, while leaving the back alone.

I was aiming on obscuring myself, so I tilted the lens forward, which makes the plane of focus be close to the camera at the bottom, and far from the camera at the top. It also was a short time exposure, and I did some head wagging.

This was, like so many of the others, taken in the archetypal woods behind “Shack One.” I am not a man outstanding in his field, but I do OK in the woods.

The expression on the face was an intentional lampoon on my tendency for self-seriousness.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Further Musings from the Woods



Click on image, if you want to be able to read it : }

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’d escape into the woods behind our rental just south of Charlottesville, where I would read, play guitar, or just sit there. That explains the chair-in-woods photo, with the book sitting on the chair seat.
That was a favorite book of mine. At the same time I took the photos of the chair, and the chair with the guitar, I also took a close up of the book. I found a cicada shell, which I propped up on the book to cast a shadow. You can kind of read the text, if you click for the larger image. It’s a memorable section on consciousness, from “Joyful Wisdom.”