working on a new engine for this here blog, but in the meantime, here are some photos I took while I was in NYC last october; they’re just the top of the ‘to be posted pile’. I’m still thinking about some of the things I learned in that workshop.
I need to redesign this whole thing… blog needs a polish, for sure. I put together a newsletter, but tinyletter kind of sucks for sharing photos. There’s a limit on the width of 600 pixels, or roughly nothing. I tried to figure out ways around it, but in the end it really doesn’t work. Photos just don’t look as good small. More is more.
Took these on the way home from a friend’s birthday drinks. An eclectic group. I made the mistake of having the first couple rounds before having any food, but managed to recover thanks to several slices of pizza (and the kindness of relative strangers). San Pablo, of course. This is sort of the section that’s closest to my house, which I knew would be maybe an issue with the project. I’m close to here a lot, so the photos will reflect that. On balance, it’s not too bad. I just need to get out and shoot more.
(I started this 2 days ago, and just now hitting the publish button, which is a shell script, but nevermind that. These things take time).
Yes, a post full of sunsets. This was also mid-september, around when my parents were here. The second one is a stitched pano, from two images. At least I’m not committing the sin of HDR.
There are some problems with sunsets. First of all, they’re cliché. Like, forever and ever. Second, they’re the sort of thing anyone can look at and take a picture of that works. You look at a thousand of them, and there’s this dull sameness that’s like looking at glitter. Pretty, but not, you know, rising to the task of making art most of the time. (note here that I’m talking about my personal definition of art and artmaking, you do you boo).
BUT. There’s definitely a part of me that thinks all of that is bullshit, and shoots sunsets anyway (sometimes just on my phone, trying to pretend I’m not serious about it). Cliche? That’s just something a jaded person says because they can’t admit something can be nice without being impossibly niche and unheard-of.
AND. “A picture anyone could take.” But no, not anyone did; I was there. I chose this exposure, this framing. I chose a place to stand and took the picture just when the sun hit the top of the clouds. Every picture, moment to moment, place to place, is unique. Sometimes all I want to say with a photo is: “This is where I was, and this is what I saw.” It’s not enough to be taken seriously in some circles, but I’m fine with that. Not every picture is the cover of NatGeo or the New York Times; none of these, I suspect, will ever hang on a gallery wall.
Anyway, it’s a complex subject and I’ve just barely scratched the surface. There are probably much more interesting photos to be made (my favorite of these is definitely the first one, which is not really a sunset picture). Maybe I should learn the lesson of the photography workshop I just went to and limit myself to one picture? I do need to be doing tighter edits in general. No more 30 picture posts.
This was… sometime towards the end of September? I was freshly out of the boot, but still not walking a ton. My parents came to town and wanted to see Muir woods, or maybe I suggested going? Doesn’t matter. Nature hike, relatively flat and nice. Short, too. Less than a mile. We got done there and had a little steam left, so we went over to Muir Beach, too. It was overcast by the time we got there, but still really pretty/nice. The ocean, with no memory.
Too many computers, and too many things happening to keep track of the photos, really. I need to spend some energy towards getting my photos from the last several months together. It’s like, the moment I got my cast off and was allowed to walk again, things started taking off, and I didn’t have any kind of routine in place to keep things organized, so they’re spread out over my desktop, laptop, and iPad, and also some still on each camera (all three have seen some use). So yeah, trying to catch up and make sense of everything. Pushing out photos as I do.
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