Capitol Sconce

Shot this back in April when I was starting to fall in love with the 70-200mm. It’s such a beast of a lens; serious, heavy and conspicuous. It screams, “I’m taking serious photos here, people.”

This is both good and bad. There are times when you want to get an image and the serious lens grants you a bit of leeway. Then there are times when you’d prefer to remain less visible and you can’t because the white monster lens is shouting about the photos and the art and the serious whatnot. However, the bokeh is stellar and its ability to get shots in a pinch has made this a go-to lens, despite the drawbacks.

I’ve got a detail shot of this sconce that I will share today as well. It’s a gorgeous thing. The hand-like talons wrangling the snakes is likely ripe with symbolism. I did some searching to try and find out if there was an overt symbology, but that is a rathole I didn’t want to go down today. At university, I took a few art history and humanities courses that dealt with Greek and Roman art and architecture, but I don’t recall if it’s an eagle controlling two opposite snakes implying justice or strength (Herakles/Hercules?) or it’s just a cool detail. I would imagine there is a meaning to extract and I’m certain it would involve any of the following: Freemasonry, Egypt, goddess worship, the Old Testament, Mayans, 9/11 and the Illuminati.

I just liked these sconces, so I’ll forego the rathole.

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Affirmation: Seriously, let it go.

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A Paintbrush Across the Sky

Caught this last night. Out of my window. Ridiculous.

There are probably a ton of sensor dirt spots all over this image. The Canon 5D is in desperate need of a damn good hiding. I think that’s how you spell it in Lancashire. Right good washing up.

Gonna be a nutburger week it looks like. Battery croaked in the car/truck/SUV. Fun times. It’s in these moments when you realize, even if very slightly, why people pair up: backup. In modern terms, backup means something different than it did for our ancestors. With parenting, backup means someone steps in when the other is at the end of their tether. I realized something the other day. I’ve never fully lived alone as an adult as long as I have the past 4 months. Crazy to fathom. I’m still getting a handle on the nights when I don’t have the girls. Hell, I have them tonight and I’m still up past midnight working on stuff. I’ve got to re-balance myself. I think the lack of equilibrium comes from living life as a unit and all that entails and having the balance that such a unit inherently provides. I’m still adjusting to not having the unit aspect full-time. Super weird. Still feel like a stranger in the condo sometimes. I’m having homeless dreams where I am living close to the edge and I lose it and end up homeless. That feeling of dread upon waking is the most super special way to start a new day.

Still, the glass is full-ish. I’m going to stand by that for awhile. Sit with it. Maybe take a sip or two.

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Daily affirmation: You are making progress. Notice it.

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Chasing the Past

I keep trying to capture my childhood memories in these images. This one gets close. Something about riding my bike downtown & sitting on a bench sipping a tiny Coke bottle or a Pepsi while the sun hinted at setting. I knew that if I wasn’t home by 8, I’d be busted, but there were a couple of days where I got away with a few extra minutes. It’s not something I did a lot, but the memory of the light, the sound of AM radio and summer have stayed with me. If I was lucky, I’d run into one of the older neighborhood boys with a job and they’d buy me a pop or candy bar. One of the families in our neighborhood had a Husky and I loved that dog. I could never pronounce it’s name, but that dog was great. He drank Pepsi.

The thing that I go back to in regard to this particular image is being a small kid and walking around our cars to get in and out of them. While passing, I always looked at the details in the lights. I would think then, as I do now, that there had to be a reason for the placement of the diffusers and somebody had to design and make all those patterns in the headlights. How did they come to this particular design?

I did a bunch of crazy work on this one. But I love where this ended up.

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Daily affirmation: It’s summer! Get outside. Right now.

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Into Your Fire

I’ve been trying to get better at sunset shots. I’ve probably shot a couple thousand frames from March or this year until now. I’ve driven places, planned, not planned, tried just about every lens I have access and I’ve got maybe half a dozen killer images to show. So instead of driving last night, I shot this out my bedroom window. Good thing, because the girls are with me this weekend and I couldn’t have driven anywhere to shoot this without two very grumpy sleep deprived girls the next day. I’ll be watching the skies for the next several months and trying to grab the best sunsets I can from my window.

One thing I’ve been noticing is that my favorite and best shots come from the blue hour (wikipedia; Flickr pool; Google+; 500px). This is the time of morning/night where the sun is not visible, the sky is blue and the colors turn fantastic.

Soundtrack for this image is Mark Knopfler’s “Smooching” from the soundtrack to the great 1980s movie Local Hero. I won’t link to the Wikipedia page for the movie, because the ending is so nicely done.

Rdio:

Spotify:

The chord progression is delicious and Knopfler’s playing is the embodiment of precise, super technical finger picking, yet full of emotion. Nerd note: fans of 1980s tenor sax might recognize the late great Michael Brecker weaving some really nice playing around 2:43. I bought the soundtrack for this song and it was a staple on all my college era mix tapes. This track shows where Dire Straits was going pre-Brothers in Arms. A lot All of my breakups during the 1980s featured this song as a soundtrack. Something about the chorus turnaround chords kills me every time I hear them.

My introduction to the film was via Gregory’s Girl which was also directed by Bill Forsyth (Wikipedia; IMDb). Even if you don’t like the song, see Local Hero because Burt Lancaster is fantastic. Plus, Scottish accents galore.

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Daily affirmation: Show up.

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Lake Sunrise

I heard a term today: landscape early. Never heard it before. Context: if you shoot landscapes, you have to wake up early to get the good shots. Usage: “In order to get this shot, I had to wake up landscape early.”

Credit: Alan Allum

This one was not that bad as I was already awake and this vista was 45 seconds from where we were staying. I did have to move quickly and didn’t shoot with a tripod. I wanted to get out about 30 minutes before I did, but I wasn’t quite awake enough. Nevertheless, when I looked out the window and saw the angle of the sun and the clouds, I grabbed my camera and ran.

The Sigma isn’t the best landscape lens. All kinds of issues. I think the next time I shoot landscape stuff, I’m going to rent a sweeter lens.

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Daily affirmation: Head down; work.

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