Mat Weddle covers Hey Ya
Can’t believe how beautiful this is. Not the beard, the music. I love art and I love artists and their varied interpretations and inspirations.
The weekend’s photos
Wellp, Tibet is almost upon us, and I think I’m ready. I rented a 50mm 1.4 for the weekend for some final practice shots (and decided that I’ll take the 50mm 1.2 with me, instead). Katie and I did some traipsing around, first to an auto show and later into the fog, and I took a few shots after my baseball game today, too.
Off to see the world
Gabe and I happened upon this amazing sunset on Thanksgiving 2007, and he took this shot of me. As I prepare for my trip to Tibet (and I go in a week!), this photo really captures how I feel.
More fisheye shots
The whole album is here, but here are a few excerpts:
An abstract, shiny metal sculpture made a great subject for the fisheye:
Fairs are already ridiculous–great for a fisheye to distort even more, and great for night photography:
An exposure of about 30 minutes of the night sky and a dramatic bridge…a couple of cars drove by, creating streaks at the bottom and revealing me & Sam on the right:
View of SF from a Potrero Hill crosswalk:
Fisheye tests
I rented a fisheye for the weekend; thinking about taking it to Tibet for some night sky photography (15,000 ft elevation plus no light pollution must be a good combination), which I’ll be trying out this weekend. But so far, after having it for a few hours, here’s a bit of what I’ve come up with. This is FUN!
Photos from this weekend
As my trip to Tibet is fast-approaching (I’ll be gone three weeks from yesterday!), I’m spending a lot of weekend time trying out camera gear to see what I want to bring with me. This weekend it was a Canon EFS 17-55/2.8. That’s what I used to take those shots of Gabe, and on Sunday I took it over to Berkeley for some fun. I also rented a polarizing filter to see how those work.
Literal and transliteral videos
Literal version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”:
…and then there’s the extreme fun of transliteration:
I AM GOING TO TIBET
…in about 3 weeks! There’s nothing I could say to properly describe my excitement.
Several years ago I had the opportunity to see the creation, and dispersal, of two sand mandalas (by Tibetan Buddhist monks)–this is from the dispersal, in Half Moon Bay, of the second one.
…and here’s a video of the ceremony where they swept it up, beforehand. Throat singing is so awesome.
St. Mary’s of the Assumption
Next door to the Chinese consulate, you’ll find St. Mary’s of the Assumption, a giant church which has apparently landed on our planet from the future. I’ve walked by it, seen it through my telephoto lens from Bernal heights, and after a couple of trips to the consulate to get my visa, decided it was time to go in. It was a veritable melange of geometry and stained glass.
What I’m reading
…or at least, two of the books I’m reading:
James Gleick wrote Chaos, which I loved, and the subtitle here (”The Acceleration of Almost Everything”) has been taunting me for …some…time. Ha. Anyway, when he got around to talking about car phones, I thought, huh? And realized that it’s copyright 1999, which is surprisingly outdated in this context. Which kind of brought the point home. Anyway, recommended, especially if you realize that everything here is increasing exponentially.
Apparently this is the gold standard for lighting textbooks and I think I understand why, although of course I have no frame of reference for such a statement. Anyway, I’m trying to cram as much photography information into my head as I can before I go on my next big trip. After the first 100 pages I feel like I have a much better understanding of lots of intuitive stuff.
Reflection
I have a half-globe glass ring that always reminds me of a crystal ball. I took this photo in Starbucks the other day of the ring sitting on my wallet sitting on a table.
Help make Butter Michael Jackson a reality
This is a matter of grave importance. From USA Today:
Anyone who has been to a rural state fair understands the allure of a good butter sculpture. But until now, few people considered the exhibits controversial.
In Iowa, a plan to add Michael Jackson mid-”moonwalk” to the annual butter cow display “has created a lot of, well, ‘churn,’” said state fair director and CEO Gary Slater.
Sculptor Sarah Pratt said she didn’t intend “to honor (Jackson) as a hero” and would also commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission - the original “moonwalk†- with the exhibit.
Pratt, who describes herself as a childhood Jackson fan, said she had planned to sculpt just an astronaut but chose to link the tributes with a play on words after Jackson died suddenly.
Lori Chappell, a fair organizer, said she realized the addition could be controversial but added that the sculpture was meant “to pay tribute to his contribution to music and dance,” not to add to “scrutiny of his life.”
Now, after hundreds of people reacted strongly to the July 1 decision, officials have decided to let the public decide whether the pop star should be featured at the fair, our sister paper The Des Moines Register reports.
To add your voice to the debate, visit the fair website to vote from July 9 to 13.
This weekend’s photos
…include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Sam & Casca being charming
- A philosophical question: how did they get the graffiti so high up?
- Terrifying baby photos
To see what my photos would look like if I knew what I was doing, take a look at Sam’s, here.
What I’m wearing today
Two things got me going here:
- I think I’ve been looking entirely too wholesome lately
- My hair is almost exactly the color of this jacket, and opportunity that can’t be missed
Et, voila:
- Dark ble jeans
- Yellow snakeskin wedges, a staple
- T-shirt from Japan, as in, from a tourist stand outside of the enormous Buddha statue in Kamakura
- Pink courduroy jacket
- Orange earrings I made
- Necklace that I *think* is from Sri Lanka
- Two rings from Tokyo, one that appears to be made of wire and solder, and another from Hellcatpunks, which has a surprisingly fun website