back on the blogging track.

busch gardens are totally fun on saturday, but so much fun that i felt like i was run over by a bus on sunday morning. so two days without blogging – ouch. :(

i spent yesterday practicing different lighting techniques and discussing wedding arrangements with a client. this upcoming weekend i have four shoots and am currently bouncing in between ideas of the absolute best place for two undecided ones. i’ve been going to shelley lake lately to see if it has any potential as a shooting location, but it’s usually dark by the time i get there.

beautiful views there at night:

018

but the bugs are horrendous so we didn’t stay very long.

004

patiently waiting to leave so he can stop being bitten alive.

shelley lake looks like an awesome place to go in the fall when all of the leaves have changed. they have a lot of great walking and bike trails. might be a little boring for pictures in the summer unless you want green leaves as your constant backdrop, but i think i’ll try it in the fall. i’d have to have a client who liked to walk – i made the mistake of thinking the trail would be short and ended up covered in sweat 2.5 miles later in 100 degree heat.

also, love the impromptu drawings on the exercise signs along the trail:

002

happy standing still, very sad while doing any physical activity.

i also found a lovely little toad this past weekend. he reminded me of toad from the books frog and toad, but i guess i’m not very imaginative, am i? :) he was very cute. the last picture made it into my portfolio – i love it. it’s like the where’s waldo? of toad shots.

021 023


intermission.

i normally don’t post on fridays, but i’ll be in williamsburg, va tomorrow at busch gardens… and i certainly don’t think i’ll be blogging from any roller coasters. :) i’ll be back on sunday to dive head first into the next several months worth of shoots, editing, client meetings, etc. time flies. i wish i could say that i would be taking pictures at the park tomorrow, but i won’t. and as strongly as i believe in the “take your camera everywhere with you” adage, i really think amusement parks should be left out for two reasons:

  • most importantly, your camera can get damaged. you can risk the water from the water rides or the heavy vibrations of the coasters… or you can choose to leave it behind where it could potentially get stolen.
  • second, i believe amusement park days should be days free of all concern and worry. and since i would be worrying about damage to my camera, it will be left behind.

i want to be thinking of nothing but “waaaaaaaaaaah” when i am on a roller coaster instead of “waaaaaaaaah oh no i hope my camera is okay waaaaaaaaah.”

so have a wonderful weekend and i’ll see you on sunday.

beauty4

its-a-beautiful-day-in-the-neighborhood1

art imitating art imitating life.

there are several photographs i’ve taken over the years that remind of movies. they were never intentionally taken for that purpose, but i instantly think of the movie now and can no longer separate the two:

the royal tenenbaums:

she and her brother richie ran away from home one winter and camped out

in the african wing of the public archives.

out-with-the-zebras

the big lebowski:

smokey, this is not ‘nam. this is bowling. there are rules.

bowling

alice in wonderland:

Caterpillar: By the way, I have a few more helpful hints. One side will make you grow taller…

Alice: One side of what?

Caterpillar: …and the other side will make you grow shorter.

Alice: The other side of what?

Caterpillar: THE MUSHROOM, OF COURSE!

toadstools

so in the age old question, which one is it? does life imitate art or does art imitate life? i am most certainly inclined to believe that art imitates life. first there was life – art came afterward. right? maybe not. but that’s how i tend to think of it. i certainly believe that that’s how it began, although some people live their lives as though imitating movies, desperate housewives, etc. now. but originally, art definitely imitates life. do you agree or disagree?

but of course, as illustrated above, art also imitates art. it can be intentional or unintentional, but it still happens. the works of others are inspiring or, in some cases, so uninspiring (or just outdated) that we feel compelled to create a new and improved version. sometimes we are awesome at that (the new star trek movie) or we fail miserably (i really wanted to like the new willy wonka, but it became painfully clear within the first scene of the movie that we were in for the longest and most painful 115 minutes of our lives).

typically photography is one of the few art forms where you are trying to capture real life in candid moments. of course, we also pose our subjects and often pose, frame, and edit in artsy ways.  photographers make a habit of imitating life and imitating art simultaneously. we want it to be real, but we also want it to be creative and artsy. but then again there are different types of photographers…

it gets a bit confusing, doesn’t it. i guess that’s why it’s one of the age old questions.

the one photograph i have that i can truly say best represents art imitating life:

walmart

every christmas we have a town underneath our tree. in the past it has been full of victorian mansions, castles, quaint coffee shops, unique mom and pop shops, etc… until last year when we found a ceramic wal-mart and decided that it absolutely had to be placed under the tree.  so last christmas all of the tiny shops barely surviving in this economy lost their business, as you can see above, when all of the townspeople made a mad dash for the wal-mart (note the bus parked outside and the sniper on the roof). now all we need is a cereamic mcdonalds with a mccafe and christmas tree town will be complete!…until Sal, the last survivng monster town cat after Button and Tang, goes on a rampage and destroys the city the next morning. but i guess that doesn’t happen in real life, does it. kind of a shame considering a giant monster cat would be awesome and we could all use one less wal-mart.