Work 26: Porch Pumpkins

I had intended to apply blade to these pumpkins. It is mid-November and they remain safely unblemished atop the porch railing. Pumpkin carving is fun stuff, but I don't think it is happening this time around. I like looking at them just as they are. And they will last all the more long without the holes. I enjoy the whole pumpkin. This morning's fog gave an extra charming backdrop for gourd gazing.

Work 25: Sometimes I get up/You always get up.

Sometimes I sleep in. Most times, really. Sometimes I get up to make coffee for someone who can not sleep in. This is when I see you. You always get up. Usually first. Always up.

Work 20: Sunsetsink

This is a rough stitch of where I do my dishes.

Work 19: Calendar Slide to Desk Plant

I may not have a skateboard these days, but I do have paper clips! And why not live vicariously through office supplies. If I can imagine a better life for my paper clips, then by all means, they should have it.

Work 18: Cloud Scene

At the moment I am technically as well as inspirationally tied up in a project of mixed media. Right now I am fighting through a spell of soured ambition. As part of this project I am learning Apple Motion, a video editing program that creates a 3D environment. This clip is my first effort at the program. As it is only a rough draft, it may not make it to the final project. The clouds are made of paper towels.

Work 17: Drinking of You

I made a cup of coffee as soon as I arrived at the office this morning. I looked at it, smelled it, tasted it, and held it. Thought of coffees and coffee companions passed.

Work 16: 1/4096

There is a well known motif of a crazy person in a confined room tearing up sheets of paper. I am not crazy. But my job does give the feeling of confinement now and then. So today, like any sensible crazy person would do, I sat at my desk and tore paper. I started with a sheet of A3 paper, and kept tearing it in half until my fingers could fumble no further. I was fortunate that the teachers paid me little mind and didn't ask questions. It was not something I really wanted to explain, while sitting at my desk, at work. Assuming my math is correct, the smallest box should be 1/4096 of the original.

Work 15: Paper Players

This is a first, but it is something I have been thinking more about lately. Between Michel Gondry's crafty sets and Wes Anderson's recent animation, I have been wanting to make my own little worlds and snap them in a photo. For my first attempt I have grabbed a ready-made story line and cut out some images from popular news. Content-wise I am not likely to continue much further down this path, but process-wise, this is just the beginning. A very sloppy beginning. Here, I had an idea of what would be going on, but not a sound grasp of layout. I would like to think this out more for future builds. Its a start.

Work 13: Call to Worship

While looking through my digital photos for a separate project, the preview feature flashed a bunch of my orange images in rapid succession. I then paused my current project to make a video with my orange series instead. I took the whole file of 36 images, loaded them into my video editor, and let them repeat a number of times. The order seen is the order the photos were taken in. Every other cycle is shown in reverse. Some places are sped up and other slowed down. The only manipulation to the images, was in adjusting the contrast of the video as a whole. I edited the clip until it seemed right, then I dropped some music on top. Music borrowed from Architecture in Helsinki. Titles are hand drawn.

Work 12: Angkor Again

Last summer I traveled to Cambodia and visited the ruins of the Angkor Empire. A few days of temples and I left with hundreds of photographs. I felt as though I had experienced the ancient city through my viewfinder, and less with my eyes. Visiting Angkor truly is a once in a lifetime event, and a couple of weeks ago I returned for a second round. I wanted to see the temples differently so I decided to shoot Angkor only in black and white. It was a difficult call to make. I popped in a B&W Secure Digital memory card, and committed to a colorless journey. I have not embarked on such a path since graduating college, and thus, sadly, graduating from the darkroom. As soon as I returned home and loaded the images onto my computer, I knew the decision was solid. It has been some time since I have been so pleased with a photo series. Having seen both, I think Angkor has some fine subtle colors to show in the stone and dirt, but B&W is hands down the best for ruins. Here is one of the many passageways in Angkor Wat.

Work 11: 2 Drinks

In two consecutive weekends I went to two establishments. One was a Spanish restaurant near the sea. It is surrounded by strawberry fields, a source of local pride. The other was a brewpub near the fish docks. It has the best beer in Japan. Both images show local drinks as modeled by my friends. A microbrew that is brewed across the street from the bar and utilizes all the local ingredients it can. A sangria that is more of a sweet strawberry juice and gets its berries from the neighborhood.

I did very little to alter the images other than amplify the mood that is already present.

Work 7: SK, C vs BW

BW

C

South Korea is color and it is concrete. The buildings scale the mountains and the food stalls burrow into back alleys. Without intent I returned with an album full of color. Even in the dark, perhaps especially in the dark, the colors are vibrant. It seems a shame to strip the saturation from any of my photos, but I want the comparison. I find that the higher the rent a neighborhood pays, the more readily it can be stripped of color.

Work 5: That Sweet Glow

By no set plan, every mikan that I peel ends up looking like a sun. Before eating it, I remark upon the similarity. The bare fruit still in sphere form, sitting on a peel of similar radiance bursting into each direction. It captures any natural light and claims it for its own, suggesting with a confident glow that it is the true source of light. Consciously or not, I see all this, and I eat it.

My first round of photos caught all of the detail and none of the warmth. While the Sun brings clarity to all we see, it itself is not clear to look upon. I began to mess with the focus, and the more I did, the more I liked the results. Here is a mikan (Japanese orange), sitting on the Wisconsin flag, captured with the last light of the day.

Work 4: Wish You Were Here...

Here is a take on the standard vacation postcard. The sunset silhouettes disappear to reveal the images of friends back home. At home we imagine the exotic. In the exotic we imagine home. Is it a grass is always greener mentality, or just wanting a little bit of everything, everywhere?

Work 3: My Knee

This is the knee of a body training for its first marathon. While most of the body is undergoing physical improvement, the knee is beginning to regress. I took a photograph for a better look. It did not capture the the feeling of the knee. So in desiring a more honest photograph, I digitally manipulated the image. Sometimes the camera falls short of the truth.