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March 28, 2008

Broken in the Midwest

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Hearts Unfold Like Flowers Before Thee, Opening to the Sun Above

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March 25, 2008

Opening

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With Winter Go the Oranges...But Here Come the Tomato and the Corn

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March 24, 2008

The Jonquils Series Continues

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Easter Fountains

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March 21, 2008

Unless a Grain of Wheat...

Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"

Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

The crowd spoke up, "We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'? Who is this 'Son of Man'?"

Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light." When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
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It may be a little early to reflect on the beauty of resurrection, but in the darkness of Good Friday, remember the light is coming. As we reflect on the death of Christ tonight, may we realize that in that death we too die, our sins are put to death, our old human nature is put to death. And, just as surely, we will be raised to life with Christ, because of Resurrection Sunday. If we are Christians, we are new creations, now.

Even so, while we are on this earth looking forward to that final ressurection, in one sense a Christian's life is to be characterized by Good Friday every day of our lives. We are, after all, called to carry our cross daily, are we not, to die to ourselves. I forget that so, so, so easily. May we not on this Good Friday night.

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March 18, 2008

What the Rains are Bringing

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March 17, 2008

Eight More Verticals From Roll 28

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March 15, 2008

Soulard Saturday

I went to Soulard with flatmate Peter, but did not actually manage to buy anything. I did work up the courage to ask three people if I could take their pictures, which is progress for me, and skill I need to work on if ever I want to take more interesting people pictures. I would have asked the duck, too, but he did not seem to mind.

Not sure which of the next two should come first.

lucky day

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March 13, 2008

Vampire Weekend

Well, posting this note about this band is probably scratching the same itch as did my posts about Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys, as they are another band whose music I really like, whose lyrics are clever, and yet still rather sketchy at times. I don't know why exactly, but the music just makes me happy, almost enough to dance; almost, but not quite ;)

Evidently Vampire Weekend has some connection with African pop music that they evidently gleaned from listening to African records, but they do not have much connection with Africa other than that. In an email exhange, Kirk, asked some interesting questions of what it means for artists to lift musical styles from a culture without having any connection to that culture. A great thing to discuss. I suppose cross-pollination of music across cultures has been going on for a long, long time, and while I do not have much use for fusion cooking, though I love to experience diverse cuisines on their own terms, I do often like the fusions of styles in music. And, I have figured out that I really like chimey guitars. Again, I think they make me happy. And I really like the percussion on this album, too. Oh, yeah and VW members wear preppy nineties clothing and sing largely about the priviliged life of wealthy east coast college students. It all is a bit of a weird combo.

Without further ado, here are some samples from Vampire Weekend, here is their web page which has lyrics, here are some rave reviews they have been getting, and here is one and two videos of them singing their songs in the streets of paris; pretty creative. Also, the creator of the last two videos, Blogotheque, produces some pretty cool videos of artists which can be found on youtube, such as Sufjan singing "Lakes of Canada" by the Innocence Mission. Other artists receiving the blogotheque treatment:
More Sufjan
Arcade Fire ("Neon Bible" in an elevator)
Arcade Fire "Wake Up"
David Bazan
Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird too
My Brightest Diamond (this one is for Jesse)
More MBD

Enjoy.

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March 11, 2008

Pigeon in Sepia

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March 09, 2008

Primavera!

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March 08, 2008

The Very Last of the Spaghetti

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On Its Way

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March 07, 2008

After the Snow Day

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An Online Art Exhibit and Talk - My Famous Flatmates - In catapult

The latest issue of catapult magazine is up and it is a good one. Well, that is somewhat of a self serving assertion, but not entirely.

I do have an article in the issue which presents an online version of my first photography exhibit and the transcript of the talk I gave at its opening. When viewing the first slide show, pause a second or two when each picture comes up if you would like to see its title.

I also have a photographic piece taken on a whim on Ash Wednesday as two of my flatmates came home from service. After getting their permisssion to use the photos, I told them they were going to be famous. Jonathan said, please, he has already appeared in a picture in Time magazine. Nice. Still, I think it is pretty cool.

Amidst other pieces in the issue, I specifically recommend to you a piece on Holy Week services which makes me hungry to participate this year.

And a piece on creative church bulletins, which is fascinating. Make sure to check out the slide show linked at the bottom of the article. There are some amazingly cool images. What an idea.

Finally, there is a fascinating article/interview with the Christian worship band Aradhna which fuses classical Indian worship music with western styles.

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March 06, 2008

Study Break Miscellany

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March 04, 2008

More Metal Tree: Sepia, Sunset Edition

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March 01, 2008

A Fine, Soft Evening

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The Camera I Use and How I Use It

In response to a request, here is a blurb about the camera I use and how I go about taking shots and processing them. Oh, this got longish, so if one section bores you, feel free to move on to the next.

The Introduction
I think part of the reason I do not readily talk about my photographic techniques is because I am a bit embarrassed that they are rather simple, and my camera does much of the work. While I was doing research to buy my camera, I came across a person who said that if you are going to buy a D-SLR and simply use the automatic settings, then you might as well not bother. Well, I do not use the fully automatic mode, but I do use the Program mode, which is largely automatic. I do get do get to decide whether or not I get to use the flash, however. I generally do not, though, unless it is a party or something indoors and I am taking snapshots. Part of the reason I do not use the flash is more out of lack of knowledge, but also I like the non-flash look whenever I can get away with it. And, also, I am waiting to do my flash learning when I buy an external flash. I do change the ISO settings, however, to work with the light available. The higher the ISO setting, the lower light one can shoot in, though the pictures also get correspondingly grainer, or not as fine.

The Equipment
Regarding equipment, I did buy a D-SLR, even if I don't often use its manual settings, though I do sometimes, primarilly for the fine quality of the sensor. The camera I have, the Canon Rebel XTI, does not have the sturdiest of bodies, but it does have a really decent sensor. Also it has a built in sensor cleaner which is nice. If you buy this camera, I would recommend not buying the kit lens and either buying a really cheap, and cheaply made, 50mm lens by Canon which evidently takes super pictures, because the actual glass lens in it is pretty decent and lets a lot of light in, allowing one to take pictures in very low light and to blur the background nicely. The lens I have is the Canon EF 28-135 with Image Stabilization, which I like a lot, though, I cannot get really wide shots at all, and this can be a bit of a bother when taking pictures of groups or large landscapes. If you want a wider angle but not as much zoom, and can spare the extra $100, this is nice, though I prefer my own, or alternately this new product, which is an image stabilized version of the normal kit lens the camera normally comes with, but this is pretty cheaply made.

I do recommend getting an image stabilized lens, though, as it really helps in avoiding blurry shots. Also, I should note, there are camera systems from other manufacturers that are equivalent, if even a bit cheaper. I like my Canon, but whatever brand one goes with, it is good to do a fair bit of research first and talk to folk. If anyone one wants to talk to me about my set up, they are welcome.

The Process
When I am taking pictures, usually I will take two or three shots of something if I am really excited about it and want to make sure to get a good shot. It is best for me, if the situation permits, to zoom in on a shot after taking it and check if the bits I want to be in focus actually are. This is important, as one can sharpen pictures a little, but poor focus cannot really be amended.

When I get ready to use the pictures. I process them using Paint.net, which one can get free on the Internet, though one has to download the .net framework from Microsoft too, which is not really a problem. There are more complex free programs online, but I like this one, largely for its relative simplicity.

Even though I have slipped down the slippery slope of what I call "amp-ing" my images more than I initially intended, to make them pop more, I generally try to recreate what I saw through the lens, or only add a little bit more pizazz. This is a rather important philosophical and aesthetic question for me which warrants its own post, and has (though I wrote this post long before I got a digital camera and the example I have included is laughable). Still, I almost always stick with only changing the brightness, contrast, color saturation, and lightness. I also do sharpen pictures on occassion. I do use other effects from time to time, but in these instances the picture has moved beyond a photo for me to some thing else, a digital painting of sorts or something like. Also, with brighteness, you must understand that your computer or laptop settings effect how it will look on other computers or printed out when you send it to Walgreens or wherever you get your prints made. One can get one's monitor calibrated, which I need to do, or just try and err and try again.

Another, tip I recommend is to keep your original file unspoiled and save the image you have changed with a different name, that way you can go back and do some thing different with it at another time, if you like. This does eat up hard drive space, but that is getting cheaper all the time. And, speaking of hard drive space, either get a program or create a system which allows you to find your pictures easily. I have "Rolls" which are numbered on my hard drive of batches of pictures. When I think one roll has enough shots in it, I create a new folder. A rather silly nod to film cameras, but it works for me.

The Conclusion
Well, Dora, I am sure that is more than you wanted to know, but there it is, somewhat simply put actually, if you can believe that. But still I guess my process is more complicated than I thought, but still relatively quite simple compared to most photographers, I believe.

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