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I am so out of ideas. After another Saturday session at the office, the lazy St. Louis photoblogger's solution is to walk a block to Citygarden and shoot something or other. The garden is lucky to have two representations of Pinocchio. The puppet in Jim Dine's White Gloves faces the direction of the rising sun, arms outstretched as if in praise and supplication. Or is it triumph? Except he has no eyes - he literally acts blindly - and Pinocchio's growing nose tells us that he's been lying.
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More lunchtime wandering with my point-n-shoot: CDPB lite. Another shot of this one.
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Like the fine print says: there is a portrait of Mao Zedong on the wall of my office, a sarcastic Andy Warhol image (it's not meant as adulation). There is also a 10 yuan note on my desk, just in case, under a crystal ball designed by one of my favorite artists, Jenny Holzer. The crystal ball predicts the world to come: the inscription inside reads the future is stupid.
HEY, SPEAKING OF ANDY WARHOL, THIS IS WAY MORE THAN FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME: Studio Altius is a St. Louis photography venue that rents professional studio space and lighting equipment to shooters who don't have their own, holds photography workshops and hosts exhibits of local artists' work. At the end of every year, they have a competition and show "for the best photography created in that year from St. Louis area photographers," or at least those who get around to entering something. SEEN 2009 opens soon and I was notified today that seven of my images were accepted (I'll post links to them as soon as I get a chance). This means one of two things: there were very few entries this year or the judges have exquisite taste. Take your pick.The opening reception is Saturday, December 5 from 6 to11 PM. St. Louisans, be there or be square. You will have the opportunity to buy Bob's stuff. Studio Altius is located at 3518 Greenwood in Maplewood. The show continues until January 16, 2010.
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Full moon back on Halloween. Werewolves prowl the banks of the Mississippi.
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Geppetto sweats, too. (See yesterday's post.)I think I have a picture in the hole I can use for the Thursday Arch Series tomorrow.
Afternoon Note: I have reluctantly turned on word verification for comments because I've been getting a lot of spam lately.
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I can't stop. I was going to take a blog break, clean up other stuff, do something else meaningful in my precious free time. Right? So yesterday I was looking out my office window at the rain and gloom and thought maybe I should go buy a sandwich for lunch and you know it looks kind of cool out there in the rain so why don't I put my point-n-shoot in my pocket while I'm walking around in the rain like an idiot? It's here in my briefcase. Just a couple of shots won't hurt. I can stop anytime. So Citygarden is just a block away and hey Pinocchio and Geppetto are soaking wet. Pinocchio looks like he's really nervous and he should be from what the wood carver is about to do to him in this wacky sculpture. So just a couple of shots but what's the light like from this angle but that's all and then go buy a sandwich and back to the office and pretend I'm Sisyphus climbing that mountain of work over and over. Unless I have to edit a picture right this minute.But I can stop anytime. But I can't. Help.
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I hadn't taken a picture for two days until last night. It felt liberating. All this time has opened up for other things. It made me realize that while the blog has been good for my photography, it's been bad for me personally. My work week has been long. Most of my free time was going to shooting, editing, posting and commenting. Normal household chores got pushed aside because of the demands of the blog. Still haven't finished sorting and editing the Nepal and Tibet pictures two months on. I'll probably get back to the daily blog in a bit. Now, if it weren't for this &$@!* job...One of the things to do is study photography. I'm taking an online course in off-camera flash techniques from the Perfect Picture School of Photography. The name is a bit pretentious but I've done a couple of other classes with them and the quality is very high. So, this week's lesson and assignment concerns bounce flash techniques. This photo is not about St. Louis but it's in St. Louis, viz., my basement. I was shooting alstromeria and decided to break some rules. This is bounce backlighting, straight off the wall behind the flowers, taken with an 85 mm prime lens at f 1.8, 1/60 sec., ISO 100. Something different.Be back soon.
I am so out of ideas. After another Saturday session at the office, the lazy St. Louis photoblogger's solution is to walk a block to Citygarden and shoot something or other. The garden is lucky to have two representations of Pinocchio. The puppet in Jim Dine's White Gloves faces the direction of the rising sun, arms outstretched as if in praise and supplication. Or is it triumph? Except he has no eyes - he literally acts blindly - and Pinocchio's growing nose tells us that he's been lying.
