Entries from January 2008
On Saturday I drove up to Cincinnati for my family’s post-New Year’s Christmas party. Guests included my Dad’s immediate family and their spouses, as well as some step-family that live in the area. We all met at my Uncle’s apartment for lunch/ visiting/ dinner. Since I never really shoot family gatherings I decided I’d go crazy with this one.
My uncle lives on the eighth floor of his building which gives him a pretty good view of the outskirts of Cincinnati. My dad is pointing out a small regional airport to my uncle John and Grandpa. I’m sure you all cared to know that.
Jack scans the horizon for signs of life.
Mom, left, and aunt Anne stare at each other and make funny faces.
My grandpa bought a new car and hated it, so he sold it to my uncle. This is them going over the title.
Aunt Anne, Mom and Jack laugh as my dad tells the story of the time he and a friend filled balloons with propane and tried to make them fly over to a candle so they would blow up like the Hindenburg. He told us that he didn’t realize the propane was filling the room, and he and his friend ended up blowing the windows out of the garage they were in. Classic.
Uncle Bob, the host, rips the fat off some meat.
Grandpa identifies all the old people in the album.
The fam.
Grandma Bea reads about her Christmas present, a printer/scanner/ fax machine/ can opener that they probably won’t know how to use.
We had soup for dinner.
Jack tries out some spicy chips.
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Jonathan is back. I haven’t seen him since before the summer and it was awesome to just hang out with him again. I didn’t really ask about what he did while he was gone or why he’s back, but that’s fine. If he wanted me to know he would tell me. Here’s a short story of our history: Jonathan and I did Shaolin together a couple years ago and he also taught Judo at the gym. A while later the Judo club was disbanded, but reorganized in Jonathan’s apartment. He changed the name to Wudo (wu= nothing, do= the way) we grappled and trained with him for a long time and it was excellent. Just before he left he started this new training game called wall ball. the room we did Wudo in was small, and he would basically get a bunch of racquetball balls and start bouncing them of the walls. The game was like a mix of racquetball and dodge ball where the object was to hit the ball in as few bounces as possible, as well as dodge it when it game flying off the wall. It’s extremely fast-paced and tons of fun, especially since the paint that Jonathan put on the floor starts to liquefy when it gets wet, making it slick as ice.
On Friday night Jonathan had a wall ball party, which was basically a game of wall ball for some people and a party for everyone else. I took my camera, but I didn’t really shoot much since I was more interested in playing. I wasn’t feeling good that night though, so I would sit out occasionally and that’s when I would shoot.
This is THE room with Matt on the left, Jack in the middle and Jonathan on the right. Jonathan has some thing with ladybugs, but it’s never been explained to me.
I think Matt was there for the party and not the game, but that’s fine. You can see the holes Jonathan puts in the walls with things like the chain hanging to the left. Training is intense.
That’s Jonathan. The thing on the wall is the Chinese character “do,” which means “the way.” I’d also like to point out how reflective the ceiling is. I’m pretty sure Jonathan doesn’t have heat in his apartment, so when we get in that room and start generating tons of body heat the walls and ceilings start to gather condensation and eventually start to drip profusely.
Dave.
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Today I took my most recent bike project to the local shop to have the cranks pulled. I put the whole bike together about a month ago to make sure the parts all fit together. I actually rode it around for a bit, but I never really tightened the bottom bracket all the way down and a couple days ago it came a little loose, so I decided it was time to strip the frame down and send it in for paint. I retreated to my fortress of solitude in the basement of my apartment and removed all the parts and put them in bags to be used again later. Then I drove out to my dad’s shop so I could use the grinder to get rid of some of the hangers and cable guides that were welded to the frame. Take a look.
As creepy as it may look, I love this little room. Tools hang from the walls, old forks are supported by someone’s water pipe in the corner, old parts sit in boxes on the shelf. It’s like my second home which, oddly enough, is right below my first home.
I don’t know what I’ll do once I’m done with this build. I love working on bikes and it will suck when I don’t have the means to do it anymore.
Sparks are fun.
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A lot of people I know like to shoot together. I myself love going out with friends and shooting. Having another person with you can really help you to expand your creativity. Another person may be in the same place as you are and see the same things you see, but the images they come back with may be totally different. Some may be better, some may be worse, but the experience of experimenting with angles and compositions, and seeing what works and what doesn’t is what will make a photographer grow.
However, as awesome it may be to hang out with friends and shoot pictures at the same time, it’s even more important to shoot alone. When you have a job at a newspaper, odds are that you’re not going to go out on assignment with your friends. You alone are going to be responsible for motivating yourself to go out and shoot. I’m not talking about walking downtown and shooting for an hour. Around the photo office and during workshops I hear a lot about people going on crazy adventures in search of pictures, but sometimes I wonder if those people would make the same mile-long drive if they had to do it by themselves.
As I was watching Lexington Herald-Leader photographer Charles Bertram’s 2007 year in review, I couldn’t help but notice how many of his shots were not from Lexington, but from the surrounding (and sometimes not-so-surrounding) counties. This just proves that you have to be self-driven to go searching high and low for features. (Note: I don’t at all know the circumstances in which these photos were shot. He could have been on assignment during every singe one, but if that’s true then it doesn’t prove my point very well, so I’m going to ignore it.)
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