godfreydigiorgi's posterous

photos and other curiosities

Memorial

The year flies by, and crawls at the same time. Memorial Day coming up already. Wow.

I was in Portland, Oregon last weekend. There was a thriving Japan Town in Portland as World War II broke. The Oregonian headline on a sad day shortly after December 7, 1941 announced "Portland: First Jap Free City!" as thousands of Japanese were trucked off into internment camps. 
This sculpture, in a park by the Willamette River in downtown Portland, honors the memory of the innocent Japanese Americans who suffered as war criminals for the duration of the war. It affected me, and affects me still. 

We must not forget—without remembrance, without history, we will all repeat our mistakes over and over again. 

Communicating—The Book

Sorry I missed posting last week's entry. I was down with a truly nasty cold and flu, and for the past week I croaked about like a frog with the sinus runoff and little energy. I'm back in the flow again now, the camera's back in my bag, and new exposures are happening again.

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Over a year and some now I've been shooting and posting the series called "Communicating". The latest addition happened last Monday evening..

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I'd started with the germ of this idea in 2005, portraits of people in context I'd titled in my head "This Cafe Life" that eventually just became "People." It finished up as a picture a week project slide show. (Viewable here as a flash slide-show presentation ... yeah, back when I thought flash was a potentially useful presentation engine. People 2005.) 

Revisiting the idea half a decade on, what struck me as I continued my cafe rounds was the way that communicating in these 'third place' situations varied and how the electronic telecommunications age had infiltrated since even 2005. So many people now head to a cafe, buy a drink, then immediately plug into their email or web browser oblivious to the surrounding play of goings on. Yet those outside the web of electronic comm still interact ... if you keep your own head out of the cell phone or the web browser for a moment, communications do not cease. 

The end product idea of this year and some worth of effort has been to put this series into a book. I have enough photo material now to make a solid 30-50 image book. So this week I start a photo book making workshop. 

The reception and book signing event will be in July. Invitations will be sent. Stay tuned.

- Godfrey 

 

Jumble

Jumble

It was a chilly, and wet, weekend. My Saturday morning walk through Guadalupe River Park was a meander, as I had a friend walking with me. It's difficult to concentrate on seeing when there is someone who wants to talk nearby. 

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Near and far, far and near. My vision would not settle although the light was beautiful. I wanted the longer lens, then I wanted the macro lens. Had only the one with me; it was enough. 

The whole weekend was caught in this slow oscillation between tick and tock. A few more photos will surface. Later in the week. 

It goes like this sometimes. Focus returns at its own whim. 

- Godfrey

Blossom

Blossom

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The other evening I watched a short documentary piece on the news. One of their most respected reporters visited the site of the nuclear reactor melt-down in Japan last year. On March 11. 

And I realized that a whole year had gone past since I updated this blog. So much has happened in the past year, in the life of the world, in my own life, that there is no way to attempt to recount it all here. 

But a year gone by ... it is time now to move beyond it, to consider the blossoming of this Spring. Without forgetting the suffering that such a minor hiccup for the planet caused for so many people, but respecting it and accepting the message it provides. Dwelling in the past is a dangerous thing. We must always move forwards. 

I make plans for the future. I've decided on a weekly update here, for Sunday mornings, as appropriate for the time I have to work with at present. And each week I'll hilight one photo per post here as always, with maybe a point to a gallery elsewhere occasionally. With thoughts and ideas accompanying as always. 

- Godfrey

Earthquakes

A pause to remember and respect the hundreds for whom all options have ceased.

Another for their friends, families and those who will miss them most.

Another moment to reflect on the fragility of life in the vastness of this cosmos.

Remember. And then continue on.

There is nothing else to do.
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"Only in silence the word,
only in dark the light,
only in dying, life;
bright the hawk's flight
on the empty sky."   

- Song of Ea, Ursula K. LeGuin

 

Wall And Tension

It was a quiet moment yesterday, late enough and cloudy enough that the light was utterly shadowless and had an interesting feel .. a 'rich flatness'. It had been a somewhat long and unfocused day where I could not concentrate. I finally packed it in at my desk and headed over to a local cafe I've begun to frequent more. Warm enough to sit outside, so I did.

My book sat on the table in front of me. I couldn't concentrate, couldn't focus on 'what to do next', kept getting distracted. I read a chapter in my book. Stopped. I pulled out my notebook. Fussed with my pen. Started to write. The act of writing a list of things to do, sequencing them, thinking about them, studying the words and characters led me into a different mental state. I was grateful to leave the one I'd been in. I closed the book and stuck it in my bag.

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Sitting there, meditating and sipping my drink. I felt like I hadn't taken a decent photo all week. The notion came to me "From your seat, what do you see?" so I started to look around intently, but was again distracted. Voices in my head ... "you should read! you should ..." I didn't know what. The camera was sitting on the table in front of me, ready, and I flipped it to video mode and took a long, slow pan starting at my extreme left and running to the right. Forty-eight seconds. I watched that video about ten times: it was easier to 'see', to concentrate using the video than to look at the space around me.

And then for fifteen minutes I made photos, without going more than forty feet. This scene was the first I saw and the last thing I photographed. 

You know what is really real when you see it on the video.

A Pause In The Conversation

It's been kind of an odd week. As much as I tried to get done, it felt like nothing got done. Yet I see the evidence of work all around me on the desk, in the computer, in the inbox of my email. Hmm. A mildly annoying cold poked its way into my nose on Tuesday too. A feeling of something pending pervades... 

Must be the holidays coming on.

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So yesterday I was about the house, doing this and that, and feeling a bit chilled I sat down and watched a documentary on photographer William Eggleston. Got a good laugh about when his work was hung in a very notable gallery exhibition, Ansel Adams called the gallery to upbrade them and The New York Times rated it as "The most hated exhibition of the year." That must have smarted, but Eggleston didn't stop at all ... he just kept on going. 

Realizing I'd been around the house all day I got antsy for a cup of coffee and a read at the cafe. Brought the camera along. 

These two fellows were engaged in a spirited to and fro, then all of a sudden they stopped for a moment. A Pause. 

I made the exposure, nodded at the fellow looking at me. He laughed, and they went right back at it with a chuckle ... I heard the word "picture" and "snapshot" float over a couple of times for a few minutes. And then my attention drifted onwards. I looked up and noticed them gone.

Must be the holidays coming on. 

The Lighting

Last evening was a special event: the annual lighting of the classic fresnel lamp at Pigeon Point Lighthouse in Pescadero, California.

I arrived shortly before sunset began and was lucky to find a place to park quite close to where I had wanted to do my picture taking. It's a little to the north of the lighthouse with a broad view of the cliffs and seacoast. 

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There was quite a crowd gathered, I have no idea how many in toto but the row upon row of photographers assembled was impressive. The spot I'd envisioned was wonderfully free of obstructions and gave me the view I wanted. I imagined a fearsome din of shutters chattering at the moment of lighting, but you would need better ears than mine to hear it. 

I made about 200 exposures from sunset through the lighting ... then stopped and just enjoyed the glorious view of this beacon alight once more for a half hour. Such a beautiful light! Its beams reach out across the vastness and warn sailors of their peril at the same time they beckon onwards: "Soon you will land in a magical place!" they seem to say. 

That was enough. It was cold, my fingers were frozen. I was done for the night and happy. 

Lots of rendering to do now ... 

Onwards

I had occasion last night to visit Foothill College in Los Altos Hills: an exhibition of photography made in Cuba was opening. It was a fine show of intense work by a half-dozen or so photographers. Inspiring ... I'll have to go back to see the photos again, of course, since actually having space and time to appreciate photographs is about the last thing you get to do at a reception. A beautiful place too, the reception was in the Krause Center For Innovation gallery, housed by old observatory buildings. 

As I left, the late evening dusk was just fading and the lighting on this lovely old observatory dome and wall stopped me in my tracks. And I realized, I don't have my tripod with me! Ah well, I had the new camera: new technology  ... wonder what it can do? I wonder what I can get with it hand held ...? 

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It's amazing, the rush of technology this past half decade and some in photography. The capabilities of today's cameras is simply astounding compared to what was available as recently as 2005, and lightyears beyond 2001 and before. It seemed obvious to me, working in the Dark Ages of digital imaging in the 1980s and 1990s, that this revolution would be profound when it hit production prices. But how could I have predicted it would happen so quickly? I couldn't, I didn't. And I am glad it was: it means I will have time to enjoy it, to learn it fully, to get back past all this equipment bother into Photography again. 

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Another milestone passed yesterday ... After a month's persistent work, my office in our new home is finally fully operational. It's been a big job, a lot of work, but the shelving is built and in place, the desk and worktables are arranged, the equipment is hooked up and humming. I'm still unboxing and putting things away but finally there is a place to put those things away, enough mental space to be productive and think again. 

Now to think hard and move forward with a new plan, new ideas, into new endeavors. The hard part, in other words, is now in front of me. And, as it turns out, it's the fun part that I've been working to get to. 

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Moving onwards ...

Against The Rules

On one of the camera equipment forums someone said: 

"... good photography is more than a checklist of criteria- and that's where my challenge begins:

I want you to post 1 (one) photo. One of your m4/3 images that you've always liked. Maybe it didn't get the reaction you wanted, but you like it because it's different- outside of the norm. It doesn't adhere to the rules of "good" photography. ... "

I thought this was a lovely idea And some fun photos were posted in response. So I picked a photo and posted it ... 

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It was fun to pick one photo, but of course it wasn't really satisfying enough. I found about three dozen that I thought might be worth working on. I picked nine out of that and have posted them to a new set on Flickr ... you're welcome to enjoy them. 

BTW: I never think about rules when I'm making photographs. I just make photographs that appeal to my eye. So I'm not entirely sure what rules I'm breaking ... 

Maybe you can tell me?