The classes here at the Maine Media Workshops have a pattern. We review the students' work from the previous afternoon, go through a presentation and discussion with the teacher and, after lunch, go out driving around the small towns and forests of Maine looking for interesting places to make images. I found this doll at Elmer's Antiques close to Augusta, the state capital. We can be overwhalmed by the visual details but this cousin of Chucky got my attention.
So here I am in photographers heaven, The Maine Media Workshops. From late spring to early fall they run week-long work-your-rear-off programs in every aspect of photography, video and cinema. I've been here five times and it's where I learned a lot of what craft I have. However, my last visit was 10 years ago.
This time I'm taking a course just in photographic composition with a renowned photographer, Harold Davis. Our first day's assignment was about circles and lines. We went to the remarkable Endless Summer Flower Farm, which had dahlias as far as the eye (or your lens) can see. I'm really out of my element - this isn't the kind of work I usually do. However, I think that pushing my limits will make me a better photographer.
Free day yesterday. I decided to take a two hour excursion on the schooner Appledore 2. (No relation to Dumbledore, I presume.) It left Camden harbor with its crew of three for a tour around the neighboring islands and the edge of the open ocean. This picture was taken while motor powered as we were heading out and not yet under sail. By the way, the crew was just terrific.
My course this week is about composition in photography. Our teacher asked us to read his book on the subject and I tried to incorporate some of his principles. Now down to work.
One of the many reasons I come here. Free day today. Wonder what I'll do.
Something easier to read from the newly repainted section of the flood wall. The stylized STL on the top of the box is part of the logo for the baseball team, the Cardinals. The bowl and spoon are full of little cardinal heads, the winged blue note of the hockey team, little arches and, um, bullets. That's a very serious issue around here. The gun violence in parts of the area is appalling.
Gods of the air willing, I'll see the Atlantic Ocean by this afternoon.
I don't know if this person is one of the people who painted the panel or just sitting on a rail looking at the image. I also wonder if the blue parts of these figures are some super-stylized letters - this old codger wouldn't know. The numbers 314 are written under the bill of the hat near the left. That's the local telephone area code, which is a symbol of local pride in some parts of the U.S. Not many people realize we just got a second, overlapping code to handle the explosion of mobile phones.
Tomorrow is a travel day, which may or may not affect posting. I'm going to one of my favorite places on earth, some place I have not visited in 10 years. Unfortunately, the weather looks bad at the city where I change planes.
The center of a panel farther down the wall at Paint Louis. The history of our species suggests that what seem like limits are made to be broken and that, in itself, is inspiring. Or something. The astrophysicists say that, at least in our current understanding, the universe is finite but unbounded. Work on that for awhile: Ad astra per aspera. (Hey, it's the state motto of Kansas.)
Or maybe I misunderstand the whole point of this.
