Archive for the 'photography' Category

Marsha

Photography update

The new Photo 365 project started on 1 August, and this time there are four participants: Heidi, Jean, Deborah, and me. I’m less than thrilled with the latest iteration of Flickr’s iOS app (which I use for most of my uploading), so I’m not always up to date with my posting.

Here are the most recent twenty-five photos I’ve added to the group:

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Last August 1, my friend Heidi and I started a Photo 365 project together. Every day, we each post a photo to our Flickr group. My photos are here,* and Heidi’s pictures are here.

We’ve both missed occasional days here and there, but for the most part we’ve been pretty successful at charting our year in photos. We’ve enjoyed the experience so much that we’ve decided to start another Photo 365 project together when this one winds up at the end of July, and we’re happy to have any interested friends join us.

There are no set themes—we photograph whatever we like. Some photos just document everyday events; others are more composed shots. Occasionally we comment on each other’s pictures, but there’s not a whole lot of chatting going on, so the “active interaction” component is not demanding at all. Mostly we find this project useful as (1) a nudge to take at least one photo each day, and (2) an opportunity to share photos within a small community.

If you’re interested in participating in this project, let me know! The new Photo 365 starts on August 1!

*(As you can see, I’m a bit behind in updating my photostream. I’m busy with work deadlines at the moment, but I’m hopeful that I’ll have time to bring my current photo project up to date before starting a new one!)

Marsha

Yosemite

Here’s an amazing time-lapse video of Yosemite. The nighttime shots are especially stunning.

I need to go out west again.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/35396305[/vimeo]

Marsha

Consumed

Photos of everything one man ate during 2010. Everything.

It’s an overview of one person’s diet. Judging by the the appearance of the tag cloud (with things like “chocolate” and “tortilla chips” feature prominently), it doesn’t look particularly extraordinary. But seeing everything laid out, especially in the monthly views—that is pretty amazing.

Marsha

This looks like a dream

An artist stuck a high-speed camera out the window of a high-speed train as it passed through a crowded train station on a Saturday morning. The result is something that looks like a dream:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1xSa7gcYmU[/youtube]

The filmmaker describes how he made this film here.

Marsha

A weekend in NYC, part 1

The three of us spent the first weekend of October in New York City. My brother and Jan’s brother both live there, as does one of my oldest friends (we’ve known each other since high school), who let us stay in her apartment while she and her family stayed with her parents a few floors up in the same building. Not only is her place huge by NYC standards (two bedrooms and free parking in the attached garage), but it’s just one subway stop from Grand Central, right across the East River from Midtown. Not having to deal with driving around and parking in Manhattan = lovely.

Here’s the view from the park right next to her building, in the morning…
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nycnightskyline.jpg…and at night.

 

nycsundaymorning.jpgWe weren’t in Serious Tourist Mode this weekend, preferring to focus on hanging out with our families and friends. The weather was fabulous–we lucked out in that our visit took place during the two-day lull in NYC’s heavy rainstorms–so we spent a lot of time outside.

In addition to playing in the park near my friend’s apartment (a park which had some of the coolest playground equipment I’ve ever seen–climbing! spinning! what fun!), we walked around the city a bit. I am especially fond of being in NYC before 10 a.m. or so on weekend mornings, when everything is quiet and it seems that the city has just gone to bed.

 

nycalice.jpgWe spent pretty much all of Sunday in Central Park, a place so huge and varied that even an entire day isn’t time to begin to explore it. We’d been there before, though–and Jan grew up in the NYC area and knows the park pretty well–so we knew which parts we wanted to visit. Sylvia wanted to visit the “sisters and brothers playground” (jump to 2:26), and then we hung out at the Central Park Zoo with our friends. After they went home (naptime for their kids), the three of us headed to the Alice in Wonderland statue.

What an amazing sculpture! I love seeing which parts have been made shiny by the touches of countless little hands. And I love seeing children crawl and climb all of it–totally in keeping with the sculptor’s intent. We spent a good half our there ourselves. The only thing that persuaded Sylvia to leave…

 

nyccarousel.jpg…was the promise of a ride on the Central Park carousel. This thing is over 100 years old and features handcarved wooden horses. It was originally set up in Coney Island was but moved to a covered pavilion in Central Park a few decades ago. It’s also huge, has a real calliope inside, and offers the longest carousel ride I’ve ever experienced: for two bucks, you get to go around (at a good clip, too) for about seven minutes!

Marsha

“Here Comes the Sun”

A couple of months ago I heard about Worldwide Moment 2010, “a not-for-profit simultaneous photography event to create international peace, art, and cultural awareness.” This year’s date-and-time combination: 10.10.10 at 10:10 a.m. GMT.

 

What an awesome idea.

 

I signed up right away and last night set my alarm for 6 a.m. I went downstairs in my dark house, set up my shot, and took the photo at exactly 6:10 a.m.

 

I wanted to minimize my use of artificial light, but because it was predawn (but only just–sunrise was only a few minutes away), there wasn’t any natural light available. Today is also happens to be the day after John Lennon’s birthday. So what I came up with thematically seemed appropriate to me:

 

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This was fun. I think next year’s event will be 11.11 at 11:11 a.m. I’ll be there.

 

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(I’ve posted this photo to Twitter and Flickr, but I’ve decided not to post it to the Worldwide Moment website because I’m uncomfortable with the terms in their Material Submission Authorization and Agreement. I realize that WWM is a nonprofit, and I don’t expect to get paid for my contribution. But I’m not going to grant them a “perpetual” license and let them use it “for any purposes whatsoever, through any forum or media possible,” with only the possibility that they “may attribute my submission to me.”

Marsha

Photographing dancers

Jordan Matter’s Dancers Among Us photography project takes professional dancers from several companies and puts in NYC locations, in everyday settings. The results are amazing.

Marsha

Speaking of squash…

The deluge is just around the corner!

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Look at all that pollen!
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