Mar 15, 2017
“Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.” ~Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Everything about her was tiny, her frame was petite and her voice was softly small. She pulled at each finger of her glove before fully removing it, and repeated the process on her other hand. I estimated that the woman in front of me was in her 40s, but her hands looked 2 decades younger.
“Can I have a chair?” she asked, and I rolled an office chair over to the cart I’d cleared for her things. As she unrolled a bundle of manicure tools, and set out various bottles of skin products, I wondered if she was more accustomed to jobs that offered her private dressing rooms. Did they actually have stars on their doors?
It was the first time I’d ever met a hand model, and since my job was to basically hover until she needed something, or until we started shooting, I probed her with questions about the job. As she spoke she barely looked up from her hands and never stopped massaging them, but she was happy to indulge my curiosities.
She never does dishes, I learned, or anything else that might risk damaging her precious hands. Her worst fear was of getting paper cuts, yet she’d been expertly trained to wield a knife for chopping vegetables. I tried not to imagine what a chopping mishap might look like… without success.
She never leaves the house without gloves on, she told me; in the summer too, and even when she goes to the beach! I imagined her in a bikini with Cinderella gloves on, and the perplexed looks on the faces of any strangers who noticed this odd attire.
“The hands are the first things to age,” she said, with a slight smile, still elegantly moving her hands against one another.
I pitied her in that moment, but only because I couldn’t imagine her life for myself. A life without being able to get my hands dirty. A life spent hiding from the sun. A life full of superficial fear, and a fear most of us will have to face… the fear of aging.
I think of the palm readers who can tell so much about a person from the lines in their hands. I think about how the repeated expressions on someone’s face are what determine where the wrinkles will show. I think of how much more interesting a dilapidated building is compared to a flawless new one. The more cracks you can find the more stories there are to tell… and I’d say the same thing for wrinkles and scars.
To age well is to barely live. That is my humble opinion.
I look at this photo and I see a wrinkled Earth. I think of how we, humans, are worse than the sun to the Earth’s skin… prematurely aging it. Lost in all the hopelessness I have for Earth’s survival, and our own, the only thing I can say is, at least she lived.
Did you know?
Patrons got to see this 2 days before anyone else, and that’s only the start of Patron perks!
Artsy Reflections started out as the Photo and 100 Words project back in 2014 – find out why I started it and how it evolved.
Mar 8, 2017 |
About Reflections: Every photo is a frozen memory. BUT every memory is also a reflection. AND every reflection is a distortion of the truth based on perspective. This series explores literal and figurative reflections.
Nick and I were on a roller coaster road trip at the end of last summer, and our Virginia hotel was right next to this massive warehouse full of home décor. I’d never heard of it before, but apparently At Home is a chain that hasn’t made it up to my neck of the U.S. just yet. =(
I can’t tell you how long I wandered, or the amount of restraint I had to have to not buy everything in the store! It was difficult to leave, but eventually I narrowed down the things in my cart to only a few small reflective props, and only two impulse buys that strategically lured me in at the checkout aisle.
All of the photos below, and many more to follow in future posts, were made reflecting these objects off of one another.
If you’ve been following along behind the scenes, you may have noticed that I’d been using my little flashes up until this point. I swear by these little lights for my macro photography, and I love how portable and simple to use they are… but they have 2 downfalls:
1) They’re battery operated, so as the batteries start losing power it takes the flash longer and longer to recharge for the next burst of light. No big deal when you subject isn’t moving, but…
2) They also don’t have modeling lights. So that makes it really hard to see what you’re doing, especially when the subject is reflections. The slightest movement can totally alter your image and it can be hard to get the light back to where you started if you move it by mistake.
For those of you who are new to strobe lighting, modeling lights are the lights that give you a preview of where the light is actually falling onto your subject. They’re not as powerful as the full force flash that goes off when you hit the shutter, but they allow you to see where the highlights and shadows will fall before you take the photo. With flashes you have to guess and check.
The solution?
I borrowed some lights; Dynalites to be exact. I only used one light and then, for this particular photo, I clamped a “McClamp” to my table and then attached a small, 12-inch diffuser to the other end to soften the light. The black card on the table cut back on the amount of extra light that was bouncing off of the white surface.
However boring it is to photograph products, my product photography experience taught me that black and white cards are very useful tools for modifying light. I’m using matte board that’s white on one side and black on the other because it’s what I had on hand, but you could use foamcore, posterboard, and even construction paper.
Here’s a closer look at the set so you can see a bit more detail.
You can see what I got out of this setup below! The light is filtering through that mosaic candle holder and backlighting each little piece of glass. My camera is catching only a bit of the candle holder on the left, and is mostly focused on the reflection that’s bouncing off of the bottle.
You might notice that the surfaces of both objects are all a blur, and only the reflections are sharp. I find the literal and figurative depth of reflections so fascinating!
The same lighting and concept were used in the above detail shot, I just switched out the bottle for a soap dish.
I think I must have tried the larger dish at first, but I probably didn’t like the results and stuck the smaller one on top. So the result below is zoomed in on that smaller dish, the surrounding areas aren’t captured in the frame.
Woah… I covered a lot here. In all honesty, I planned on showing you more in this post, but I think that’s enough for today.
Next time, I’ll show you how one simple adjustment of this one light can create extraordinary results! Stay tuned for Part 4 =)
As always questions and comments are welcome below.
Mar 1, 2017 |
“No, I don’t wanna be a clown!” I cried as I ran away from my father to hide, and pout, and resist the red, yellow, and blue garment he was dangling in front of me.
I was 7 and I had just spent the past few minutes being awed by my older cousin in her princess costume. In the brief time I was aware I’d arrived at a costume party, I’d also arrived at false expectations of getting an equally girly costume.
Apparently, though, my dad had known about the party all along. As I made a scene, he’d explained how hard he’d worked on the clown costume. Yup, my dad had sewn together the primary-colored atrocity, and eventually I gave in to wearing it.
I didn’t usually make scenes like that. I swear, my parents will tell you I was a pretty well-behaved kid… that’s probably why everyone felt so bad for me. Everyone complemented my ridiculous attire, but I didn’t believe them. I don’t remember any talk about a contest, but suddenly, there was a tiny golden trophy in my hands. I’d won 1st place for my costume.
I’m not a parent, but I imagine parents do project their own hopes and dreams onto their children-whether intentionally or not, and my dad is definitely the funny guy in the family. However corny his jokes are, they’ve rubbed off on me. Today, I’d much rather make people laugh than put a dress on. You will certainly never mistake me for a princess… but a clown… that’s not outside the realm of possibilities.
In case you’re wondering WTF this has to do with this photo, well, I can’t escape seeing a smile in it… what do you see?
Did you know?
Patrons got to see this 2 days before anyone else, and that’s only the start of Patron perks!
Artsy Reflections started out as the Photo and 100 Words project back in 2014 – find out why I started it and how it evolved.
Feb 22, 2017 |
“I want to be an actress!” I said when I was 12 or 13.
“So you want to be a waitress?” My mom replied, laughed, and explained my future as she saw it, should I pursue such a career.
“I want to be a novelist!” I said when I was 22 or 23.
“Hmph! Don’t we all.” My journalism professor stated with a disapproving look, before she lectured me on starting my senior project.
I never had any hope of becoming an actress nor a journalist… and just like that, the novelist dream bubble burst in front of my eyes. Yet the pieces of those shattered dreams somehow merged to form the abstract sculpture that’s now forming in my life.
I didn’t stop writing, and I’ve become the narrative journalist of my life. The word ‘voice’ is often used when discussing a writer’s work, but a couple of years ago I gave myself an actual voice when I launched my podcast… and I fell in love with a new medium.
Now I’m super excited to announce that I’m recording my 1st fictional audiobook! Never at 12, or even 23, would I have guessed that my first completed book project would be as a narrator. I get to help a writer make their characters come alive, and I’m beyond thrilled to get started doing this kind of work.
The perfect blend of acting and book creating… not exactly the dream bubble I thought up… but certainly a beautiful mosaic I was able to piece together with all my broken pieces.
This photo is called Broken Bubbles… we all have shattered dreams, but I insist you always pick up the broken pieces and take them with you. You never know what you might be able to build with them later on!
Did you know?
Patrons got to see this 2 days before anyone else, and that’s only the start of Patron perks!
Artsy Reflections started out as the Photo and 100 Words project back in 2014 – find out why I started it and how it evolved.
Feb 15, 2017
About Reflections: Every photo is a frozen memory. BUT every memory is also a reflection. AND every reflection is a distortion of the truth based on perspective. This series explores literal and figurative reflections.
In the first behind the scenes post on this series, you probably noticed there were barely any literal reflections. I let myself create anyway, and relied on the written reflection, which has become such an important part of my work, to squeeze the images into this series. Once I got started with literal reflections, though, it was kind of hard to stop!
Turning Art into Art!
An online course in palette knife painting led me to create the colorful abstract painting pictured below. It was only meant as a practice canvas, but I liked the way it turned out and decided to keep it. I thought it would be interesting to see what kinds of reflections I could make with it.
Inspiration in the Bottom of a Glass
The reflection surface was inspired by wine! As I was sipping on my pinot noir one night, I noticed how much I loved the reflection of the bottom of the glass into the dark smooth liquid. I wouldn’t dare waste wine, though! So I used coffee instead.
I played with my wine glass a little, but the reflections were kind of boring with its smooth sides. I rummaged through my cabinets to find an assortment of randomly shaped glasses that my landlords had left behind. Jackpot!
As you can see in the above photo I was trying to light the canvas… and it was just not working for me. I couldn’t light the canvas without throwing unappealing highlights onto the glass and coffee.
The Solution?
I took close up photos of my canvas with my phone and used the backlighted images of my art to create the reflection. Then I only had to use one flash, bouncing off the ceiling, to brighten up the areas surrounding the coffee puddle.
I loved the resulting photos so much that I made a bunch of variations by rotating my phone and zooming in on my favorite parts of the image. Here are my favorite picks!
More Techie Details
The other secret behind this set of photos was that each one of these was actually 5 or 6 images all merged together in a focus stack. Focus stacking is a tedious solution for when you can’t get all your favorite parts of the image in focus. I spent about 2 hours on each of these photos in Photoshop.
The one downfall of using a macro lens (I was using a Nikkor 105mm f/2.8) is that the closer you are to your subject the less you are able to get in focus. In other words, shooting into a deep glass, my lens might be able to make about an inch of depth sharp, but the rest of the detail will be blurry.
So what happens if you have 5 inches of depth and you want it all in focus? First make sure you’ve pushed the limits of your aperture (for the most depth of field use the highest number f-stop). If you still need more distance covered you can focus stack your images to create more sharpness in Photoshop later.
So, for each complete image, I also had to shoot several images that were focused at various points inside the image. I used manual focus, and after each shot I rotated the focus ring slightly to bring my focus point a tad closer in each consecutive shot. That’s the easy part… I will not even begin to tell you how I merged the resulting photos into one completely sharp image, but maybe I’ll make a video about it one day. Leave a comment if you’re interested in seeing this process at work. =)
One More Tip
If you need a larger screen you could use a tablet, laptop, or even a TV to do the same thing. The possibilities are really endless with this setup. I could spend a lifetime simply using different images on my phone and then swapping out the glass with other reflective surfaces… but I bore too easily to stay in that comfort zone.
Part 3 will reveal the shiny objects I used for the next part of the reflection series. Stay tuned!
Feb 8, 2017
I stared at this photo, and I wanted this story to be as deep as the center of the earth is, because surely that’s how far someone could have dug in the length of time I spent staring…
Yet the mantra in my mind was stuck on repeat and it repeated a cliché. I hate clichés. I spend hours rewriting clichés, but I couldn’t rewrite this one. So I wrote a poem about it instead. As if describing a cliché is any better than stating it outright.
It’s an acrostic poem, but it’s also a riddle!
Endlessly transparent,
Yet solid as clay,
Every time the curtains open
Soulful feelings bound to stray.
Every emotion, every word you think…
Every one of ‘em, shot out of each blink.
Can you guess the cliché? Answer below…
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Eyes are windows into the soul.
Did you guess right?
Feb 5, 2017
I was invited to join my friend Lisa, from Printz Photography, for a shelter pet photo session at Saugerties Animal Shelter last week. It’s always so much more fun to work together on shelter sessions for two reasons:
- You only have to do half the work
- You only have to bring half the gear
Well, I guess those reasons just make it less stressful, the fun part comes with being in good company. Special thanks to Nicole for making this all happen and for her excellent pet handling skills! You’ll find her mushing on Meatball below.
Feel free to copy and paste any or all of these photos into your favorite social media stream… the more reach these beautiful souls get, the more likely they’ll find a home. Check out Lisa’s photos here on her Facebook page.
Feb 1, 2017
The truck was rolling backwards with my sister and me inside, but no one was at the wheel. We were just about to leave, but mom had forgotten something. She hopped out of the old Dodge Ram to dash back to the house, but when she slammed the door closed, the gray beast was shaken out of park and lurched into reverse.
Gravel crunched below the tires as we began to roll. My sister was trying to get into the driver’s seat, she was climbing over the center console from the passenger seat and I was doing the same from the back. We were both screaming.
We rolled out of the driveway and the gravel sounds silenced as we backed across the road. Mom was running towards us then, we rolled into the neighbor’s yard, and we were both still struggling on the massive center console when we finally smacked into the tree that stopped us.
Mom was already at the door and we were both fine, but for years after that I would have dreams about being in a self-driving car. They were always a little unsettling, I never knew where I was going and I had no control, but I wouldn’t exactly call them nightmares. Now, in retrospect, I might call them premonitions. Wink wink.
Did you know?
Patrons got to see this 2 days before anyone else, and that’s only the start of Patron perks!
Artsy Reflections started out as the Photo and 100 Words project back in 2014 – find out why I started it and how it evolved.
Jan 25, 2017
“Where are you going? You were supposed to make that turn!” Nick said.
“Well I didn’t know, why didn’t you tell me?” I shot back as I slowed down to make a U-turn.
“Really? How many times have we gone this way?” he asked.
“Uh, never. We’re always coming from the opposite direction!”
“Really?”
It was true, we had taken these back roads dozens of times to weave around traffic on the way to work, but this was the 1st time we’d ever driven the route heading home. The turns are on the other side of the road, in reverse order, and the scenery is totally different… very confusing to me. So confusing, I’d missed the very 1st turn.
If a cop ever asks me to recite the alphabet backwards, I’m screwed.
So I suck at navigation, forwards, backwards, all of it. I’m always studying maps before I drive anywhere solo. When I don’t understand the maps, I’ve even used Google street view to give myself a simulated pre-drive… what would I do without Google?
Sometimes I try to plan my life the same way. I Google how to do this or how to do that, trying to find a road that will lead me to my dream life. Unfortunately, there are no maps into the future… but there are maps of the past. In any life map, the paths are only visible after you’ve traveled them. And unlike regular road maps, I can read my life’s map as easily as I can read a Dr. Suess book.
I try not to live in the past anymore than I have to, but sometimes it’s really useful to have a little retrospect. Looking back at my road map in reverse I can clearly see the roads that had dead ends and those that led to bigger, wider streets. I can see the short roads, the long roads, and the roads that led me to places I wanted to be.
There is no final destination, just more roads.
Did you know?
Patrons got to see this 2 days before anyone else, and that’s only the start of Patron perks!
Artsy Reflections started out as the Photo and 100 Words project back in 2014 – find out why I started it and how it evolved.
Jan 18, 2017 |
You know that ditz you see in your home town? The one who’s using “walk mode” on her GPS to get 50 feet from where she parked her car. Well that’s me… only I mute the volume and try to pretend I’m texting.
But sometimes, even my GPS can’t save me.
I was headed to Safe Haven Animal Sanctuary, which wasn’t far from me. I’d reviewed the route on my computer before I left AND I was using phone navigation to get there.
Stopped at the red light, which was my last familiar landmark before heading into unknown territory, I recalled that once I’d turned onto the road in front of me, I’d be looking for the 1st quick left. When I turned, though, Miss Google Maps told me my turn was over a mile ahead and on the right. She sounded so sure, I just listened to her; Miss Google Maps knew what she was talking about.
In my defense I did, vaguely, sense that something was off… but I also questioned my own memory about the left-hand turn. About 6 minutes later I found myself at the very same traffic light I mentioned earlier.
Apparently, Miss Google Maps had lost her connection and rerouted me in a pointless circle.
I don’t know about you, but I’m already a robot when I’m driving. When smart cars take over I’ll be a zombie, totally unaware of what my car is doing and where it’s taking me. I’ll be writing, or reading, or watching Netflix as my car drives me off a cliff.
At the same time, I’m oddly eager for this kind of zombie robot apocalypse to happen in my lifetime.
What about you? One report I heard said Ford plans on releasing fully automated smart cars within 4 years. What do you think about a world full of robot drivers?
Did you know?
Patrons got to see this 2 days before anyone else, and that’s only the start of Patron perks!
Artsy Reflections started out as the Photo and 100 Words project back in 2014 – find out why I started it and how it evolved.
