Photography

Photos and Blogs

Do the photos illustrate the text or do the words supplement the pictures?

Photos should tell stories and stories should form pictures in the reader’s mind. I keep revisiting the thought of doing an exclusive "photo blog", but half the time I don’t like the idea of not including written things – text for tempo, words for background, sentences for structure. And when I write something, there’s always a picture in my head – the columns of words look incomplete without some visual anchor.

The fact is, I get bored flipping though photo galleries on the web and hardly read anything on the net if it goes on for more than 700 words. Books and printed media are another story, and I have no problem chilling with a novel, calmly thumbing through an Annie Leibovitz photo book, or staring at the photos on my walls.

That photo of my Jack Daniel’s bottle is boring on it’s own, but to me it looks interesting when juxtaposed against that photo from Greece.

And that picture from Chaco Canyon just seems so at home next to the one of a doorway in Berlin.

But let’s be honest, they’re actually a bit boring if you don’t have an emotional connection to the back-story. I like them because I lived, wrote, and can remember the background elements which lead to their creation.

On their own I might not really care.

But on their own, they might invoke a backstory that you have stored somewhere.

Then they might mean something to the viewer.

From a consumption standpoint, the net is boring and poorly written with lax formatting and little inspiration because it’s easy to do – and so, most people don’t appreciate the little effort that most people put into making their webpage (like me).

Writing a blog gives some motivation to make the photos for the story and learn .css and get a feeling for CMS. Things that I wouldn’t do otherwise because there wouldn’t be much outlet for the effort. The words on the blog then give a framework for the photos.

When a paycheck isn’t involved you’re free to do what you want. Without the economic pressure you can publish whatever you want, because it means something to the author; not to the advertisers, and there’s no editor to worry about pleasing.

More Fool

15 Jan ’07Fashionclothes, Fashion, H&M, WE

On a cool Thursday night after German class and before a Greek dinner party I had a deep desire to do some fashion consious shopping in Zurich. I walked into one of the bright storefronts on Bahnhofstrasse to find a jacket, and perhaps some pants to match.

"We" is a cool clothing store for guys, more realistic style than H&M, more cutting edge than Fossil, way cheaper than Hugo Boss, and they have decent quality stuff. There was a cool olive blazer, but I wasn’t ready for the shoulder inserts, plus it seemed to fan out too much around the sides. I can’t do black velvet yet and the purple relaxed velvet is just so beyond realistic contemplation for me I didn’t even try it on.

Distraught and subdued I took one more look around the ground floor before leaving and my eyes settled on a non-fitted (only small, medium, and large) urban relaxed styled offering. It was made to look like linen; a rustic brown with faded white vertical stripes. I wasn’t expecting much but I tried on the medium and it seemed to fit like a glove. It was only two button, but it was also only 99 CHF, I took it to the counter without a second thought.

Heading back along Bahnhofstrasse I stopped in at H&M. It’s not my favorite store since they like to sell too many trendy trinkets (sparkling belts and leather wrist bands) that kids buy like bubble gum cause Brittany wore it on MTV. But the guy section actually has some cool suits and pants. I only had one goal; and found a cool blue-stripped button down shirt to go with the blazer.

The Pose

I fell in love with the H&M dress shirts earlier this year when I picked one up on a whim. Seeing as I used to be quite the chubby Star Wars/G.I. Joe geek, there’s some sort of quiet contentment in buying shirts with the words "size medium – slim fit" on the tag. They hug my body like no other non-sport shirt I’ve ever worn. Up until the age of 18 I’d say that over 80% of my clothes came from my mom via various second=hand stores. Now the idea of spending $80 on a pair of non-waterproof, non-tear resistant, just-cause-they-fit-well-and-look-cool pants is almost digestible. The next night I wore the blazer, new shirt and light blue Levis. The red tie made an appearence, as did the Saks 5th Ave. scarf.

More Shadow Shadow

As I was heading out the door I grabbed the Purple Dr. Martin 10 eye combat boots (not pictured), they just seemed like the perfect addition. The aviator sunglasses were just for the photographs. I don’t really wear sunglasses during the night, unless I happened to have lost my normal glasses – which has happened before (Oktoberfest is a dangerous place). I wasn’t really drinking during the shoot, mainly because the beer had been sittng out for two or three days.

Mirror

The Look

Techno Claus

27 Dec ’06PhotographyiTunes, lighting, Photography

IF you know where to shop, the well-bankrolled photographer can buy many beautiful accessories for chic portrait sessions and produce really fantastic photos with high key lighting and limitless imagination. I have wet dreams about Lastolite products. Their stuff is collapsible and fantastic and generally costs enough to blow my bank balance for the whole of next year. And since I don’t know where my funds will be coming from twelve months from now, I figured I’d not drop a thousand bucks on their inflatable white background.

I did, however, co-host a Christmas party with my flat mate. Due to the size and generally cluttered state of my room we rarely have parties in the apartment. But every year I make the effort to make the place acceptable for a gathering. Our Christmas party included the baking of cookies, the drinking of Gluhwein, and then relaxing in front of my white wall, which was soon painted over with the projection of some movie to entertain us for the evening.

After watching Christmas with the Kranks and Along Came Polly I played music via iTunes and turned on the Visualizer.

Those in "the know" are familiar with the visualizer function of iTunes. It syncs seemingly random computer generated colors and patterns to your favorite song selection.

I hardly ever use the thing because on my 12" G4 PowerBook the techno wonder color symphony is actually quiet boring. But when viewed on my apartment wall: higher than I can touch, wider than my arms can reach, well…the techno wonder symphony is so mesmerizing that you just sit there like a cat following a laser pointer – thinking,

"So this is why people take drugs. Now I get it." I am a cat and this is the laser pointer on the wall…and I’m chasing it, meow, meow.

Naturally, I had to photograph myself in front of it. It wasn’t my idea, of course. I’m very unoriginal by nature. I just capitalized on the idea after my girlfriend snapped my picture with her handy Canon – the one that she keeps in the chic red-leather case. Sadly she faded into the night before I pulled out the Minolta 7D and the f/2.8 Tamron lens. I generally find the cable release to be too long, but it was the perfect length to trip with my toe as I posed behind the techno light show.

A Light

Accessories were needed; my will to be weird oozed out and I felt like an extra in that scene from The Doors movie where Jim meets Andy Wahrol.

Wave

A quick search of the place revealed some cigars left over from Cuban night, sunglasses found in the bathroom back in Michigan, the bottle of Jack Daniel’s my dad brought over two years ago (sometimes Jack and Coke is the perfect accent to the night), a Zipppo I never use, and a jacket from We in Zurich.

The photos were not clean or perfectly exposed, but unlike a lot of the crap portraits created by people who get paid to do this stuff, I kinda like looking at them.

Sun Flare

Christmas Photography iTunes

Fashion Fool

13 Nov ’06Fashionclothes, Fashion

I had a will to be weird on one Friday night, which for me entails not wearing sandals and trading in the climbing jacket for a blazer. The decision process took about a half hour. First, I was thinking of the black DKNY jacket, but it didn’t go with the dark blue (2% Kevlar Polo Sport) jeans that I wanted to wear (plus it felt a bit too stiff and dressy). The green corduroy Levi safari jacket was promising, but I wanted something lighter, and although I kinda liked looking like a Beetle wanabe-reject, it was too dark to wear the sunglasses which would have been necessary to complete the ensemble. I finally settled on the Alagash olive green travel jacket with leather elbows and no shoulder inserts. At this point my sister is probably asking the same question she asked me when I was showing her my Purple Doc Marten combat boots, “are you sure you’re not gay?” Underneath I wore a dark-stripped white H&M button-down shirt. There was gel in my hair and high-gloss Dr. Martins on the feet. Around my neck I wrapped a Sakes 5th Ave. scarf my mom probably paid less than 1$ for 10 years ago at some second hand store in Michigan – but something was missing.

To complete the look I tied on a bright red tie (also H&M). The scarf covered up the top of the tie so as not too look to pretentious (who wears a tie outside of work?), and the bright redness of it peaked out nicely over the top of my stomach when I pulled the jacket back and put my hands in the jeans pockets. After all, how else is one supposed to casually walk through Zurich on a fine fall evening? I call this my laid-back but dressed up. Cutting but comfortable. After all, clothes are unnatural if you’re not comfortable in them – costumes are only for Mardis Gras and Halloween. Otherwise you just seem like a trend-jailed fool trying to look cool but all the while projecting a feeling of uneasy make-believe. Ineffective and sad to look at.

I’m sometimes shy and it takes some motivation for me to get up the courage to be comfortable and wear a blazer-type jacket in public – but I also sleep on glaciers, and I had a Will to be Weird. Sometimes you have to face the fear of looking foolish when going out in a fashion nebulus of the world (like Zurich). But really, if you do it with fearless confidence it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing. Besides, life gets boring if you don’t take a few reasonable risks here and there every once in a while, and since I had no plans to galavant across mountain ridges this past weekend, the fashion risk would have to suffice to keep my senses peaked and primed to effectively handle whatever life would reveal.

Bordom Deflecting

22 Sep ’06Photographylighting, Photography

I fully admit it, I want to be a photographer. I’m an engineer, a scientist even, but I figure it’s all the same thing anyways. Writing, mountaineering, smart materials, I don’t see much difference between these different facets of my life. My latest boredom deflecting strategy has been teaching myself portrait lighting. When you don’t live with any beautiful women there’s really only one good way to learn lighting: photographing yourself.

Even if beautiful women did live in my apartment, I still would have to tell them how to pose, how to smile, etc. When it’s just me, I know more or less what I’m looking for, so I just do it without delay or discussion. The beautiful women can factor in later, if necessary.

A cheap 15 year old digital camera (relative cheapness) with IKEA soft boxes can do a lot. You have to keep the shutter speed low for proper exposure, but that just means the poses have to be static. Trip the shutter release with a climbing axe, strike a pose and wait for the 2 second shutter delay to fire. Recompose, repeat, and repeat until something looks good.

Once you perfect the technique on yourself, you have photos to show beautiful women to get them to stand in front of your camera. To be honest, I’d also shoot ugly men as well; it’s the lighting, not the subject that really counts. Lighting can make beautiful women look ugly and mean and it can make grumpy old men look happy and aloof. I don’t subscribe to the notion that lighting is good or bad, it just is. It’s simply the combination of light reflecting off of and being absorbed by different surfaces.

Having a poor subject (like me) is probably better to start out with anyways. This way no one can throw things in my direction if they don’t agree with the results of the photo session.