Photography (Things)

If I ever had a God complex it's gone as of today, because I didn't get one second of rest on this seventh day. It started with my monthly writers group from 10-12:30, then I wrote on the reality show with my cohort from 12:40-6:20 at Starbucks - straight through with no munchies...just two cups of decaf. Got home at 6:30 and scarfed down some food (you have no idea how ravenous and hypoglycemic I was at that point). Did a little organizational work, then was on the phone with my producing partner from 8-10:45 working on the budget for the movie.

I hung up with him and pulled these pictures and converted them to a manageable post size in order to complete the second half of yesterday's rant. This time it's photographs I took that focus on things rather than people so it's more about lines, spaces, movement and, of course, composition. I guess you could say it's how I see the world around me.

Again, these are all taken with my iPhone camera and are not cropped or retouched.

Apple NYC
I like pretty much everything about this photo, but I'm
especially drawn to the shadowy figures in the bottom half.

Tube Man
I like the perspective in this shot and the movement that defines
the speed to the train compared to the lack of speed of the man walking.

Palm Springs
I love the fact that when people see this on my phone they are baffled.
Maybe it's easier to figure out on here.

NYC
I like the red lights and the vertical red streaks
in combination with the horizontal streaks of white light.

Flags
I like the contradiction of the precise and static
row of lights below the free waving flags.

Mind The Gap
Best phrase ever.

W
I love the angle from above, the elegance of the lights and
the perfection of the place coupled with the imperfection that is people,
especially the blurred guy going up the stairs.
I also love the face that all the green patches are real growing grass.

This is a bonus photo that I took on my way home from Starbucks tonight. I took it very quickly through the car window so it's not a great example of anything except maybe subpar photo-journalism on the fly.

Oops
That's a pulverized motorcycle on the ground. I like the guy on the right...
I think he's kicking debris out of the lane but it looks like he's dancing.

And now I sleep.

Photography (People)

Just like movies, books, music, paintings, sculpture and any other art form you care to name, photography is subjective. And like the other arts, I believe anyone can learn the technical side of the craft but I don't believe talent can be taught. In photography I think talent represents a person's eye. Not only how one frames the picture, but how one sees things. How they interpret the world around them. And how well and often they can catch that special moment in time. Let me tell you, it ain't easy. Sometimes it's like getting the planets to align.

Now that we're in the digital, everyone thinks themselves a photographer. Okay, maybe not every everyone. It's the same as when Photoshop came out. Suddenly, everyone considered themselves a designer. That movement pretty much killed my ability to make a real living (as in making enough to live "well") because the young upstarts with a Mac and Photoshop moved into the independent film world and lowered the financial bar. Unfortunately, the clients didn't realize that just because they had tool didn't mean they could design. Just because you can hold a pencil doesn't mean you can draw.

So, just because you have an awesome expensive camera (the tool), it doesn't mean you can take great or even good pictures. And I think if you have a good/great eye, you can take a good/great photograph with the shittiest of cameras. And I don't think it's possible to teach someone how to have a good/great eye. Someone who doesn't have a good/great eye can occasionally shoot a great picture but for the most part I believe you either have it or you don't.

Here are some photos I took that fall under the people category (tomorrow I'll post some non-people shots) that I think represent use of my good eye. None of them have been cropped or retouched or adjusted in any way. They all come straight from the camera. Oh, and the camera is my iPhone. Let's see if I can give them some spiffy titles and what I like about them.

Innocence and Wonderment
I love the look in the boy's eye and the relationship between him and his father
that's expressed through their hands and the placement of their heads.

Purple Legs
Again, the hands do it for me. And of course the color combo
which I didn't create but I did capture.

Mickey's Back
I like the composition and the photographs behind him. Also how the lighting
gives him a black and white feel. Oh, and the bright light on the left.

Sad Dog
I like the dog being really sharp and the guy on the other side of the window
being soft. And the look of longing in the dog's eye . And the pane lines.

Confused
It's all about the sign coupled with the expression on his face.

Dinner
The dingy lighting, the graininess, the expression and the hand.

Self Shadow
The grates and the texture of the pavement. The anonymity of the shadow.

Feel free to disagree and rip me a new one in the comments section. After all it's subjective. Maybe you see something I don't. Maybe I see something you don't.

Weekly Round-Up

Okay, I gotta remember what I did this week. But it's a little hard because I had a small glass of red wine that gave me a very big buzz. I am such a lightweight.

I didn't get enough sleep this week. I like the nights where I close my eyes and they don't open again until I've had my eight hours. Didn't get even close to one of those this week. Maybe tonight. Or tomorrow night.

Even without good sleep, I managed to create a couple of comps for a movie poster. Turned them in yesterday and have not heard back. Wondering if they hated them.

I did a lot of communicating this week. Answered emails that were three months old. My bad. Still have some that are even older than that. I think it's a mood thing for me when I am writing a specific person. Gotta be in the right frame of mind.

Made some progress on my movie. Unfortunately, nothing I can talk about...yet.

Now that I think about it, this week was crazy.

Crazy 'cause I actually did some furniture rearranging and a mad cleaning of my house. Partly because it really needed it -- my living room was too junked up; my house (especially with two dogs) gets way too dirty, as in layers of dirt on everything from the floor up -- and partly because I had another pitch meeting at my house for the reality show I can't tell you about. This time there were eleven people including me. Figured I had to make a good impression. It went very well, thank you very much.

Now I'm going to watch Them! Not the band...these guys...

If you haven't seen you're really missing out.

P.S. If there are horrible grammatical errors and an overabundance of typos in this post it's the wine writing, not me.

Mike Gibbins

Badfinger has possibly the most tragic story in rock'n'roll history, but today is drummer Mike Gibbins 60th birthday so I choose to celebrate.

Mike Gibbins

3/12/49-10/4/05

I finally found a video that features a decent amount of face time for Mike...



Happy Birthday, Mike!

And lots of peace and love to Ellie.



You can see lots more pictures and learn more about Mike Gibbins and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Intuition

Sometimes we forget the importance of intuition.

Today I was reminded of it in a strangely cosmic way. I was entering some receipts I dumped on my desk from my recent trip. When I got to the bottom of them there was a faded pink post-it with a dog-eared corner sticking out from under my laptop. I picked it up and stared at the barely visible handwriting (actually handprinting) on the front. On one line was "thinkexist" and a ways below it was ".com".

Curious as I am, I decided to check it out. I typed in the url www.thinkexist.com and it went to a website with the subtitle "Finding Quotations was never this Easy!" The weird part is that it opened to this page:


What's weird about that? Well, it's the sites basic url but the page has three quotes from people born on November 15th. Why would it open to a November 15th page in the middle of March? When I clicked the November 15th link at the bottom of the page it went to a different November 15th page that had dozens of pages with quotes from people born on November 15th, not just the three on the opening page. After some more poking around, I came to the realization that I was on someone's registered user page. But whose?

I checked with Jaimie since she's the likely candidate but it wasn't hers. She thought she'd heard of the site but was not a registered user. And she's only been on my computer a couple of times to check her email. Si, this whole thing is a complete mystery to me. I don't know anyone else who's been on my computer and, unless I'm completely nuts, I've never been to this site.

I will have to assume that for some cosmic reason someone wanted me to read these three saved quotes. I'm still trying to figure out what the first two should mean to me, but the third one is crystal clear and something that I should always keep at the forefront of my conscious brain. Here are all three quotes if you're too lazy to open the photograph...

1. Felix Frankfurter was born on November 15, 1882
American jurist, 1882-1965
Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.

2. William Cowper was born on November 15, 1731
English poet One of the most widely read English poets of his day, 1731-1800
Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.

3. Johann Kaspar Lavater was born on November 15, 1741
Swiss theologian, 1741-1801
Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once.

I'd be interested to hear what happens when you go to www.thinkexist.com.

Have a most intuitive day.

Tony Flaim

I'm betting most of you have no idea who Tony Flaim is, unless you've read my book. Which is probably still most of you.

He was an incredible blues singer in Canada - I photographed him when he sang with Downchild Blues Band - and today is the 9th anniversary of his passing.

Tony Flaim

1948-3/10/00

Sadly, I couldn't find any footage of Tony but here's his voice...

Space Cowboy

I'm multitasking. Editing photos for a movie poster I need to get done, making dinner and scanning some randomly-picked-out-of-the-pile negatives so I can create a post for today. I hate multitasking. I also hate whoever came up with the idea that the ability multitask is an asset. It's not. It's a liability. Because if you're multitasking you're doing a whole bunch of things at once and doing none of them well. Focus, people. Focus. Start something, finish it and move on to the next thing.

Enough of my bitching. I've got the Steve Miller in the scanner. In his prime.

Here's a couple I pulled...

Some people call me the space cowboy
Some call me the gangster of love
Some people call me Maurice
Cause I speak of the pompatus of love.
People talk about me, baby
Say I'm doin' you wrong, doin' you wrong
Well, don't you worry baby
Don't worry Cause I'm right here, right here, right here,
right here at home
(Written by Steve Miller, Eddie Curtis, Ahmet Ertegün)

FYI, this post took me over two hours to create. Proving my point that multitasking is not an asset. Take it off your resume.

The dinner turned out good, though.

Things I Saw In San Francisco

I saw a kid spinning in front of me at Starbucks. I took a picture of him.

I saw several middle-age men in Mill Valley with ponytails wearing berets. Or maybe I just saw the same guy over and over again.

I saw Jaimie get a bogus speeding ticket on the Golden Gate Bridge. She turned me down when I asked her if she wanted me to drive.

I saw Watchmen on Imax. There were some very good bits, but overall it wasn't very satisfying. Now I have to read the novel and see where they screwed up. I figured out it cost six and a quarter cents for each minute I watched. The best part was after we left...two guys were talking, one of them ranting on moving saying something to the effect of "why do they always have to do that?" It went back and forth with no reveal on what "that" was, until finally he blurted out, "Why do they always make the villain the gay guy?" Then he and his boyfriend bounded down the stairs.

I saw a pigeon in Safeway eating from the bottom of the bulk grain shelf. I almost caught a picture of it but a shopper walked by him /her and he/she flew up and landed on the light fixture.

I saw I guy turning left on a yellow light have the front end of his car taken off by a woman running the yellow light from the opposite direction.

I saw a cashier ring up 15% off $72 as $1.50.

I saw a man on Mission Street. His pants and underwear were down around his knees and he was holding a piece of paper torn from a brown paper bag. I chose not to take a picture. Although, if I had, maybe the image wouldn't be emblazoned on my brain.

Enjoy whatever is left of your Sunday.

I Spy With My Little Eye

Speaking of spying...if anyone asks, you didn't see me here. I'm supposed to be writing. Writing a TV pitch, not a blog post.

I was trying to figure out what to post today, wishing I was home so I could go through some unknown negatives. Since I'm still out of town, hitting the external hard drive was the next best thing. Inside my EISID folder is a Concert Photography folder. Pictures I've scanned of musicians that were not in my book. Mostly stuff I've already posted here.

But one folder I spied in there is called Personal Stuff. I figured there had to be something I could use for a post. There was only one file. A contact sheet that I had scanned on June 2, 2006. Probably checking for musician photos for the book. There weren't any. Just some personal pictures that I had to have taken during my last week or two in Vancouver. Right before I moved to L.A.

I figured that out because of this picture...

I had my car packed up and I was about to hit the road about six weeks before I actually left Vancouver. I had met up with some friends (and my mother) for lunch on the day I had planned to leave. Halfway through my meal I chucked my food. By the time I got to my car I was feeling even worse and my mother convinced me to stick around until I felt better. Within two days (the most miserable two days of my life where I actually my roommate to get me a gun so I could shoot myself) I was in the hospital with a severe case of spinal meningitis.

Back to why I know the pics on the contact sheet are from then...the guy in the picture was one of my nurses during my ten day stay at the hospital. And he was kind enough to help me recuperate once I was released. And I am not kind enough to remember his name.

Anyway, all that has nothing to do with this post. Except the part about not seeing me here. Because I'm not really here. I put this post together three months ago and scheduled for today, knowing that this is the day I would be writing the pitch and would need something to magically appear. Got it? Okay, back to the real post...

So, when I was looking at the contact sheet tonight I became mesmerized with all these eye pictures. I remember taking them but for some reason, when I looked at them tonight I couldn't figure out whose eyes they were. Or how many different eyes there were. If the eyes are the windows to the soul why couldn't I figure them out? We should be able to recognize our own eyes, our friend's eyes, our family member's eyes...shouldn't we? Even when it's just a shot of the eye without the rest of the face?

Check these out. How many different eyes do you think there are?













As far as a photographic critique, I like 2, 3, 4 and 6.

I think the first five all belong to my friend and roommate at the time, Bonnie. We lost touch forever ago. She was/is an amazing artist and there have been many times since the birth of the internet that I have tried to find her...with no luck. I just googled her again and I think I may have hit paydirt. I'm going to send an email and see if it's her.

And after staring at those last two photos for about 30 minutes, I think they could be mine. Although I'm still not convinced. That's really creepy. I can't recognize my own soul.

Creativity and Heath Ledger

No, I didn't shoot him. But, unfortunately, he is dead. And he fits in with the sadness I carry for many of the musicians in my book -- he left way too soon. Right when he was on the cusp of greatness. His performance in The Dark Knight was the most (maybe the only) entertaining part of the movie.

Why do so many creative and talented people check out so young? Can anyone give me a definitive answer to that question?

Maybe it's that feeling of immortality we seem to carry with us through our youth. But if that were the case none of us would survive past the age of 30.

Maybe there's something to the idea that creative types are sensitive, angst-ridden and too insecure to survive in this oh-so-cruel world. But I'm pretty sure there are lots of sensitive, angst-ridden and too insecure to survive creative types walking this planet well into their old age.

Am I still alive because I am not the creative person I think I am? Or am I a creative person that managed to allude Mr. Death during those formative years when I was hanging with the crazy rock'n'rollers? Hopefully, it's the second one 'cause if I'm deemed to be uncreative that would probably be the death of me right there.

I don't know why I think about this death thing so much. But I do. It's one of the things that can keep me awake at night, along with what is the Univierse, how did we get here, why are we here... It's really hard to imagine not being here. Maybe not so hard to imagine but it really freaks me out when I think about it.

Wow, maybe the question should be why am I pushing this doom and gloom on you? Especially on a Friday night? The start of what I'm sure you were hoping would be a great weekend.

My apologies. I'm stopping now.

Hopefully these words from the late great Oscar® winning Heath Ledger (sent to my daughter by the infamous Cucumber Rob right before she had to undergo brain surgery) will shine a light on your weekend and beyond...

Keep smiling!

Things I Observed on the Way to San Francisco

The. Best. Mohawk. Ever.

The stormy skies were not stormy.

Mohawk Man was in my row and
seems to have had a religious experience.

I do not want to Exit to Terminal.

A cool picture taken in 1960.
The sadness that there is no longer a Pan Am aeroplane.

You can make plant leaves with skylights.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Today

Following up yesterday's post "Last Night" here is "Today."

Busy.

I was still bagged from "Last Night" last night but then I couldn't get to sleep and of course today was a major crazy (but fun) day. The days I get a lot accomplished are always fun.

I have some very cool things in the works - my movie, for one, and that something with Everybody I Shot Is Dead that I just can't talk about yet - and I made some progress on both of those projects today through a couple of meetings, a bunch of phone calls and endless emails etc, etc, etc.

So, now I'm not only bagged from "Last Night" and last night, I'm also bagged from today. And I'll be even more bagged by the time morning rolls around because I'm getting myself packed up (yup, that entails laundry) to fly the stormy skies up north for a quick trip to the Bay Area. Miss J needs me. Not for her ongoing brain issues...it seems they have finally figured out how to keep her valve adjusted correctly so she's doing really well on that front. This time she is getting her wisdom teeth extracted - geez, it's always sumpin' - as well as another doctor's appointment that requires my assistance.

I plan to get a ton of writing done while I'm there. And some design work done. And maybe even a little sleep?

Now, just for fun, can anybody identify my picture of the day?

I'll give you a hint. I took it.


That is so not a hint. I just wanted to make sure I credited myself. I'm weird that way.

Last Night

We - my brother, Corky Laing and me - started the evening at my favorite Mexican food restaurant, Lucy's El Adobe...

I was taking these pictures with my iphone and wanted to get a candid shot of Corky at Lucy's. Only problem...I was sitting next to him. So, I stretched my arms out and turned the phone around. I had no clue what I was shooting. This is what I got...

Corky Laing and Me

...possibly my favorite self portrait, even though it wasn't meant to be a self portrait. I think the photo also captures the feel of Lucy's in the background. Oh, and that straw pointing at me is coming from my very large yummy, yummy margarita. Very yummy.

From Lucy's we headed over the hill to Burbank to check out a jam band my friend Jeff plays with. I brought my "real" camera along for that portion of the evening entertainment. Only problem...the place was very dark and dingy and only had one tiny stage light that was also dark and dingy. But I had loads of fun shooting wide open at 1/10th of a second. I coulda shouted, "Everybody hold still." Like that would ever happen.

Here's the ones I like best...

These pics are a miracle...the place was so dark I couldn't even see Jeff.

But I could hear him and he sounded great.

I introduced the two drummers...

They seem to be getting along just fine. Ah...drummers.

Jeff and his very cool wife, Judith.

Corky and brother John (as you know, he plays guitar).

And my favorite picture of the night...

The bar girls. I especially like the three hands that are visible. They say everything. Click on the photo to view it bigger and see if you agree. The one girl is almost breaking through her own skin...and enjoying it.

Rory Gallagher

Happy Birthday, Rory!!!

If you're not a fan of Rory Gallagher, you probably have really crappy taste in music. If you've never heard him play, it's not too late to become a fan.

If you play guitar and you've never listened to Rory Gallagher, you don't actually play guitar.

Rory Gallagher

3/2/48-6/14/95

If this doesn't rock you, you better call a doctor...'cause you ain't breathing...






You can see lots more pictures and learn more about Rory Gallagher and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Fun Times With My Brother

I'm sick. My head cold is quickly moving downward and taking up residence in my lungs. Ugh.

My brother is on the return leg of his trip from Australia to Canada and staying at my place for a couple of days.

I took this of him this morning at Mel's, where we had breakfast.

In honor of his visit and the fact that I feel like complete shit, I thought it might be FUN to revisit a time long ago. A time when I was up in Toronto printing my first book. A time when I was getting from place to place via mass transportation...as in the cleanest subway system on the planet.

Then my brother showed up for a visit. He had a rental car. He picked me up from the printer's one afternoon and we drove downtown for something or other.

I only remember the other. The other turned out to be this...



It took a full year for the last bit of windshield to work it's way out of my head. I still have the scar on my leg.

He's not driving on this visit.

I'm filing this under Fun Times With My Brother.