2011 Creativity Resolution...

New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken, it seems. I, for one, am well accomplished at failing to fulfill my intentions as planned at the onset of each annual calendar flip. Mrs. Muse and I have already discussed this dangerous business for the imminent next year and among my desired outcomes (no longer committed resolutions – know thyself) are to watch [much] less TV (broken in the previous three years), walk [meaningfully] every day  (broken in the previous two years), and eat well (broken for the last twenty or so years). Less television could potentially equate to several additional hours per day for more meaningful pursuit. Thus my single, really meaningful desired objective for 2011 is to increase my artistic creativity. This is, after all, the stuff that truly feeds my soul. And makes me happy. Jefferson was really big on the pursuit of Happiness thing – and as he is my philosophical hero this would seem to make sense from multiple perspectives.

I read somewhere several times (probably in blogs about making resolutions), that making a public statement of one’s commitment increases the probability of success. Exactly how much isn’t clear, but given my record of past failures any increase in the odds can’t be a bad thing. So this shall then be my public commitment. But first the protective retreat and rationalization…

Photography and music are not my primary vocations. I am a fairly busy health professional working in the field of clinical research ethics and regulation. I travel for a week or more out of the month, and am thoroughly committed to the good things that we do for the right reasons (I work in a non-profit organization devoted to children’s health). This can be intense, rewarding, time consuming, frustrating, stimulating and challenging. That said, I believe that my creative passions contribute to my professional success, and my professional discipline contributes to my artistic success. The photography and music are also my creative refuge – a fortress to keep the stress at bay. And so I annually develop my professional objectives to keep my focus on what must be done in that most important of my worlds, and now also the creative objectives – to primarily keep me sane, gratified and invigorated – and secondarily to vitalize my professional contribution.

So the first commitment is to finish the 1,000 Doors Project – the recording of my music that was begun more than a year ago. We’re closing in on that one. The second is to turn that spare bedroom into a combined music room and homemade photography studio. Not the kind of studio that one brings clients in for family portrait sittings, but truly a place to “study” the art of photography – a small space to learn and practice. To visualize and invent. To improvise and experiment. I want to learn to create art, not to take pictures – to create the extraordinary from the ordinary. Or not.

I’ll share the successes and failures with you here – sonic and visual – and at the end of 2011 we’ll find out if I managed to succeed to some degree, or develop the art of procrastination to yet another barely achievable height. Stick around….

50mm Photo Meme, Part II

This is a continuation of the previous thread, as promised. The final 3 days of photos shot using only a 50mm lens, on the 50th week of the year. I tool the liberty of adding an 8th, just because I like the way it turned out...

Thursday: Saint Francis

Friday: Acosta Bridge Ramp (3-exposure HDRI)

Saturday: Florida Rain

Bonus: Wire and Wood

A great week to all!

50mm Photo Meme

This is the 50th week of the year, and the folks at one of the Nikon users websites have started a 50mm lens meme thread. I thought it would be fun to participate, as I have a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D lens. The idea is to shoot with only a 50mm lens, pick your best shot of the day for each day of the week, and post it to the thread. Through 4 days, I have seen some great shots using the "normal" lens (normal because 50mm closely mimics human sight), and been inspired creatively. Relative to most of the others mine are nothing special, but here are the first four -- I'll post the remaining three after the weeks ends...

Sunday: Live Oak Tree

Monday: Lights with Staircase

Tuesday: Gator

Wednesday: Face In The Wall

Attack of the Robot Voiced Animations...

Today I discovered xtranormal.com, the website that  brought us the animated explanation of quantitative easing that was bot funny and educational. Turns out you can build you own for free using an assortment of characters and editing options... very cool stuff! I produced this one with no learing at all in about 5 minutes... Look out. This is going to be fun...

The Joy of Fast Glass

I recently caved in a acquired a Sigma 85mm f/1.4 lens. After testing several copies of the Nikon D and G 85s, looking at other folk's images with this new Sigma offering, and comparing price / value -- I settled for value. I have not been disappointed.

The primary reasons for purchasing a "fast" lens are 1) the ability to isolate your primary subject with a wide aperture that creates a very shallow depth of field, and 2) shooting in low light with minimal or no flash. These features make it an excellent portrait lens. I don't shoot many portraits, but I do shoot many low-light situations (concerts), and love the isolation effect on the focal point. So... I took a day out of the office today and, among other things, took a quick hike through the Julington-Durbin Creek Preserve in the south Mandarin area of Jacksonville.

This turned out to a fun lens for shooting outdoors, even in imperfect early afternoon light. The trip gave me the opportunity to try out new techniques and alternate camera settings compared with my habitual static style. I shot these in digital RAW at 14-bit depth. The extra bits increases the range of color variants available (by tens of thousands).

It was great to get out a bit, on the day before the first hard freeze of the season here in Northeast Florida. We're expecting 12 hours of sub-freezing temperatures tonight (temperatures in the mid to low twenties fahrenheit -- hey, that's cold for Florida!), and our world be be much browner tomorrow.

Today also happens to be the 35th anniversary of the day that Mrs. Muse and I ties the knot... another bridge crossed....

Ormond Beach Riverfest, 2010

Not much time to blog these days, but to lighten the mood around this place a little bit here are a half dozen random photos from this past weekend in Ormond Beach. Mrs. Muse and I met our compadres from the Ashley Gang, and played a few sets on the main stage (not pictured here), and had some fun running around to listen to a few of our old friends from the Florida music scene...

AL Scortino -- my partner in crime in the Ashley Gang and songwriter extraordinaire

Rog Lee

Steve Waters of the French Connection and  M.T. Pawkett's Review

Bob Bronar (left) with Larry Mangum (smooth and versatile)

Donna Frost -- came in from Nashville for the weekend

Under the U.S. 40 bridge over the Halifax River (east coast intracoastal waterway)

Wishing all of you here in the States a happy Thanksgiving -- and all the best to everyone, wherever you happen to be!

Racism In Black and White

No, this is not about monochrome photography. Not today. Today I am stepping away from my socially safe worlds of photography and music to describe a highly non-artistic picture that was painted for me during a noon walk around the tree-lined suburban office park where I work. When the weather is cool enough here in the deep south, as it was today, I will head out for a stroll around the mile and a quarter loop along which are built several dozen large office complexes. It’s all new and modern. Tree-lined streets and driveways, well landscaped buffers between the main road and the sidewalk and the parking lots, retention ponds with parks and benches. The noon hour generally brings out walkers and runners, and today started like any other – me chugging along slowly, watching nature, runners and faster walkers passing by every few minutes from both directions. Most of the folks heading the other way will say hello, or at least nod. A young oriental woman with a bottle of water walked – actually half jogged -- past me then slowed to a fast walk as she made the left turn to stay on the loop. I thought nothing of it as she continued down the sidewalk about 25 yards in front of me.

Perhaps a minute later I watched her take a quick turn into the street, back into her light jog. Coming toward me on the sidewalk just before the location that the woman hit the street was a large black man, casually dressed. The woman’s sidelong glances at him, the over-the-shoulder checks and she moves away, made it crystal clear that he was the reason for her departure from the concrete onto the asphalt. About 10 more yards down the road, she cut across the grass barrier and returned to the sidewalk at a walking pace, still looking back. She looked back several more times as she continued down the sidewalk. As I walked up to, then just past the man, he turned and looked back at her and softly muttered:

            “Racist-ass”

I stopped and turned back to him to acknowledge his remark.

            “Not you, man,” he said, no doubt thinking I was offended, “her. Racist-ass bitch.”

            “You’re right,” I said. “You’re right, I saw it.”

The look in his eyes was more disbelief than anger – through there was clearly some of that, too. I walked on and watched the woman walk down one of the driveways towards a glass office building. She continued to look back in the direction of the black man, who just stood there staring back. How simple it is to wreck a fellow human being’s lunchtime walk.

            I try not to judge. I have no way of knowing what that woman’s life experiences have been. After all, she did speed up to get by me and didn’t slow to a walk until she perceived a safe distance. Maybe she fears all men, though she clearly, and perhaps overtly, avoided the black one. It was like she was trying to make a point of it. If she was, he got that point. Strait between the eyes. It was hard to watch. And all I could do was say “you’re right”. I have no similar experience to draw from and offer empathetic sympathy. Sometimes people just suck. No pictures. Not today.