Babette la Fave
Another shot from the archives, picked as a favorite on Flickr. Babette la Fave performing to Devotchka at the Pink Door.
Ah, the Pink Door. I spent two and a half years crouched on the floor there. It was a great introduction to the scene and a source of ongoing irritation as I dealt with crappy lighting, omnipresent waiters (obviously) and inane management. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back but I admit to a certain amount of nostalgia for the time if not the place.
Back to the bookshelf.
The last book was a wee bit too technical for my preferences. Useful, certainly, but not what I was after. As interesting as it was to see how different lenses using different focal lengths could be used to different effect, I wanted something more artistically inclined.
Which leads us to The Tao of Photography, which practically invites you to leave your f-stop at the door.
The Tao of Photography
The cover leaped out at me as I was browsing the shelves. A stark, high contrast image, other-worldly image that really grabbed my eye. The sort of picture I’d like to shoot more of, really.
Tao, though? Seriously? I was intrigued, but in a marketplace that is glutted with books that attempt to tie “Tao” into everything from chess to Elvis to Star Wars, I was more than a little skeptical. I didn’t want a book of mangled fortue cookie aphorisms used to justify or explain the intangible. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.
Chapters of the book may begin with quotes from the Chuang-tzu or a description of a central tenet of Taoist philosophy but shortly thereafter, the authors bring the discussion around to photography, often with another quote or a story about Cartier-Bresson. Looking back on the book, it actually makes a lot of sense to tie in concepts such as wu wei (variably “inaction” or “knowing when to act” or a thousand and one other things) with the act of taking a picture (simply being open to the possibilities). The earlier chapters explain these concepts and build to more and more real world discussions without ever letting go of the philosophy entirely.
Ultimately the book’s goal is the concept of “conscious camerawork”, the application of mindfulness to photography and being aware of the possibilities without getting lost in the maelstrom of daily life. In a way the conclusion is a bit of a letdown but only because it’s not possible to teach that in the form of a lesson plan. There are no ten steps to better photography, just a certain willingness to try something different.
To pull a quote from the book by Ernst Haas: “I am not interested in shooting new things — I am interested to see things new.”
That’s it in a nutshell.
Then there are the photographs, page after page of black and whites, favoring the author (of course) but with a generous sampling of plenty other photographers. It really serves as a great way to sample and branch out based on your own tastes.
More importantly is that after Within the Frame’s exoticism, these are decidedly do-able. Here’s a pepper, there’s a water tower in New Jersey, there’s a street scene in Trafalgar Square but it could be anywhere. Frame made me think that I can’t go to Nepal, Tao makes me want to go downtown with a roll of black and white in my 35mm and go nuts.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough. So I’ll end with a joke.
Me: I’m reading this really cool book called The Tao of Photography.
Jen: Really? Is it up? Or did it drop again? I didn’t check the papers.
Me: *pause* Y’know, that joke was standard and poor.
Jen: *extended groan* That was awful…
Noelle
Betty is becoming, not only another local haunt where I can be a regular, but a practice space for low light photography. And now that the light is shifting as the days get longer, I’ve got something new to play with.
Mara says summer is glorious there. I can’t wait.
I did not take this picture last night...
I was up until 4 in the morning last night in pursuit of sleep. I’m fortunate in that my insomnia is infrequent at best, two or three nights in a year. It doesn’t make the experience any more enjoyable but I can work with what I have and plan on caffeination the next day as necessary.
But there are two aspects of it that drive me absolutely buggy.
1. Bad Comedy
In the middle of a sleepless night, I feel a huge disconnect between my brain and my body and any attempt to clear that gap turns into a lame comedy act. Call it “Abbott and Lassie”.
Am I thirsty?
Woof!
Is it too cold in my bed?
Arf!
Was it something I ate?
Woof!
Third base!
It’s something, always something, but I will be damned if I can figure out what “it” is. I toss and turn for hours before I give up, call in dead to work and get up. That’s where the second frustration comes in.
2: I’m so busy, my head is spinnin’…
Last night I booted up my computer, loaded up my burlesque “annual” and hoped for the best. Two hours later I finally started yawning, but not before finishing up the layout for two more shows, deciding to cut another so I had a bit more space and cut four pages so I didn’t feel quite so overwhelmed by the project, at least at four in the morning.
I guarantee you that the next time I sit down to this, when I’m well rested, I’ll spend a lot of time just fiddling around with nothing, playing games and generally being completely unproductive.
Let’s hear it for working without distractions. And let’s wish I could do it more often without having to wait for another sleepless night.
“What did you think of the show?”
Well…
I think the most frustrating thing about shooting burlesque these days is that I can’t escape the feeling that I’m the only one in the crowd who isn’t moved to delighted applause by what’s happening on the stage. It’s not that I don’t want to hoot and holler (or that I’m incapable of it) but I’ve seen it before. If it’s a 101 recital, I may have seen a number very much like that one only two months ago. Or last week, as these things start piling up.
The “bored housewife” who discovers dirty books or her husband’s infidelity and starts stripping off? That’s so iconic it’s entered the realm of the terminally cliched for me. It can be done, and quite well (as it was at the last 101 recital actually), but it takes a lot to make it stand out.
The “sexy” librarian or secretary or stewardess or whatever? If you start out as sexy, there’s not a lot of room for change. I love a good surprise burlesque (what, you mean the cleaning woman is actually…?) but it’s stronger when I’m not shown from the very beginning that she has a thing for rhinestones and bling.
But the thing that’s really getting under my skin these days are acts that involve any kind of shock value. When the dildo comes out, I stop caring. When the boylesquer starts fiddling with his testicles like it’s some kind of flesh colored slinky, the crowd goes out of its mind. Me, I roll my eyes and wait for the curtain.
Burlesque is all about the journey, not the destination. It’s a game of curves and layers, fabric and skin that should leave the audience wondering what the performer is going to do next and how she’s going to pull it off. Literally. Fan dance? Comedy? Will there be props? What’s the story?
When the dildo comes out in the first minute, I already know how this is going to end — with a badly acted orgasm like an outtake from a bad porn film.
I like burlesque for the same reasons I don’t like porn: I don’t want to see everything. I want to see enough to deduce the rest on my own. The curves and sounds and forms are delightful but there are always those moments where we get an awkward anatomical Tab A -> Slot B shot that utterly kills my interest. That goes double for burlesque.
It can be done well. The Von Foxies had a series of acts that were essentially comedic sex “workshops” and Waxie Moon can turn the act of masturbation into a demonstration of dramatic tension. Then there’s Paula the Swedish Housewife’s “bear rug” number, which simply has to be seen to be believed.
But when the vibrator comes out, I check out and I count my blessings that the shock acts are few and far between for now.
game on!
I was outside the hall between recitals on Sunday when I heard these people playing hockey in Cal Anderson Park. I ran back inside, grabbed my camera and snapped off a quick thirty or so shots before heading back inside.
I am inordinately pleased with this picture. Part of it is a new subject matter (always a pleasure) but mostly because I found an opportunity to play around with panning shots, leaving the shutter open just a bit longer while keeping my focus on a central subject. I have a long way to go with the technique, but I’m pleased with this as a start. The trick now is to keep my eye open for future opportunities to play with it.
Over Under
Despite its brevity, February has been a hard month and the last week left me angry, frustrated and exhausted by the time Friday rolled around. By Sunday I’d had almost everything sorted out as well as a delightful day spent with Jen, but there was nothing to help the exhaustion, although watching the USA/Canada hockey match counted a great deal towards relaxation. Mostly.
All of which would be undone by the Academy recital I had to shoot last night, keeping me up and out until around 11 at night. Not fun. So I’d get a cab, hop it home and crash out the instant the door closed, right?
Well my cab karma wasn’t exactly up to snuff so I wandered my way downtown and damn me for a photographer, but I kept seeing things that would make great shots. Stand like so, angle like that wait for the light to change and…
But I was tired and had those Frost-ian miles to go before I could sleep, so the camera stayed in the bag. I was going home and I would sleep.
Until I walked over I-5, spotted the transit construction going on beneath me and, so help me, I stood there for a good five minutes waiting for the highway traffic to be just right for a long-ish hand held exposure.
Then I went home.
Good night, Seattle.
I got an e-mail from the Erotic Arts Festival today letting me know that I didn’t make the cut.
Eh.
I’m kind of bummed, but in light of recent developments in my life, I’m relieved that I don’t have to consider spending up to $180 in the face of unemployment. I do have some other expenses (upgrading my software, maintenance) that can now at least be considered.
So in light of this development, here were the shots I submitted:
Kitten La Rue
Randi Rascal
Waxie Moon
And in other news: NEXT!
The Mission... a happy hour burger.
My dad was so taken by my picture called Mission Accomplished that he had to wonder what the mission was, exactly. I, being a dutiful son, did my best to satisfy his curiosity. Yes, it’s a hamburger. Yes, it was a challenge. Yes, it was a challenge I was proud to face… with aioli sauce for the frites.
In fact, I think I may have to face it again. Tonight.
Sir Lancelot: We were in the nick of time. You were in great peril.
Sir Galahad: I don’t think I was.
Sir Lancelot: Yes, you were. You were in terrible peril.
Sir Galahad: Look, let me go back in there and face the peril.
Sir Lancelot: No, it’s too perilous.
Sir Galahad: Look, it’s my duty as a knight to sample as much peril as I can.
Sir Lancelot: No, we’ve got to find the Holy Grail. Come on.
Sir Galahad: Oh, let me have just a little bit of peril?–Monty Python and the Holy Grail
My job continues to decay, let’s look at something else again, shall we? How about books about photography?
When I was younger, I took a fair number of photography classes but I stopped when I realized that they were all teaching the exact same thing: This is how you turn your camera on and this is how you turn on the flash. True, most of them did dip in a little bit on composition and the like, but given the limitations of the technology we had access to (I think I was shooting a 110 format camera at the time), it’s not like there was room for experimentation. If you can’t focus your camera, let alone zoom or muck around with apertures, there’s not much to teach beyond that power switch.
When I got back into photography a couple years ago with the capability to experiment and fiddle, I hit the books trying to figure out what the heck I was doing now. It was wonderful to figure out what f stops were about and how aperture affected the focal length and the importance of shutter speed and all that stuff that informs my work today. Then I hit a realm of deja vu as I realized again that most of the books at a Barnes & Noble (or Amazon’s listings) teach the same thing over and over again: here’s how you turn on the camera and this is aperture priority mode. I’m not knocking them, but I’m looking for something different now. I want to explore composition and framing and whatever it is that makes me perk up and think that this moment is a great shot, get the camera.
So I’ve been doing a lot of reading and I’m going to keep at it. And the first book I read is Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision by David DuChemin.
I’ll say up front that I did not finish this book. It’s not that I didn’t want to, I simply had to return it to the library first.
For the most part, I liked it. It did a good job of straddling the line between the techgeekery and the artistry of photography and there was a fine example for every text explanation. No sooner has DuChemin mentioned panning or night photography but there’s a picture to make it clear and attainable. I think I’ll be checking it out again in the future to finish it up but I’m not feeling much of a rush to do so because there were two things that I found frustrating about the book.
First is that there wasn’t enough (at least in what I read) about working with your eye. A lot of information about lenses and depth of field, but not much about how to look. It was all very useful, but not what what I’m looking for.
And second is that I found the examples to be too exotic in some ways. While I’ll be the first to agree that the shot of a temple in Kathmandu was phenomenal and the Indian holy man in New Delhi is a great subject, I’m left wishing for commonplace examples to explain some of his techniques. How about a shot in his backyard or driving through Iowa?
Which is ultimately what I’m interested in. Some of my favorite photographers are the likes of Cartier-Bresson and Brassai and while their work seems kind of exotic with the distance of time, they were shooting things they saw on the streets as they went about their days. What we admire for being atmospheric was probably just another Thursday in the neighborhood as they went about their days.
Within the Frame is a very useful book for someone looking to explore and expand the technical horizons of their work, but I felt it lacked in the artistic arena. Fortunately the next book filled the gap nicely.
