From the stage #65

From the stage #65, originally uploaded by dbwalker.

From JJ's blues cafe, 6-7-08.

We opened for Chris Cain, wow ... I had never seen him before. The man is good ... better than good.

He really should be playing much larger venues. Like a fine wine, some blues musicians get soooo much better over time. If you get a chance to check him out, do it ... you will not regret it.

SoFoBoMo quick review: Our Robot Overlords Revealed

Link: Our Robot Overlords Revealed, by Matt Alofs

The thing is, these pictures are mundane and ordinary. There is no redeeming quality about them at all ... but then you factor in the name of the project.

Then, all of a sudden, there is life and meaning. It's not 3 air vents, it's a group of sentries standing guard. It's not a vacuum and a garbage can and a box, it's a nuclear family standing in the yard.

This is precisely the thing I love most about photography, and project oriented photography in particular. The context can change the meaning of what you see, sometimes drastically. Sometimes it's the title of the photograph, other times it's just the juxtaposition of several photos. I now see our overlords all over.

This is my favorite (So far) SoFoBoMo book.

Matt: Make a second edition, finish it!

Going down

Down down down down.....

Child like

This is a photograph of my daughters artwork hanging on the fridge, long exposure with camera motion and out of focus.

It is one of the 200 shots I took on sunday, of which none were very successful. The ones that worked were the family snaps. Family snaps are easy to make work, the audience is small and easy to please.

On the other hand, pleasing myself is a far more dificult a task.

I only shot 50 frames yesterday, and skipped the studio altogether. However, in a glass half full view, I shot 50 frames and got some rest.

I listened to the Radiant Vista podcast on "The myth of talent", the basic premise is that there is no such thing as a gifted person, just a person that has put the work in and has the passion and focus to sustain interest in a subject long enough to engage the conscious and sub conscious mind in the act of performing the task.

I agree, more over I can attest to the fact that it is true. I invested many hours of my teen years into playing guitar and now have a connection with it that is quite deep. Now I'm trying to get to a similar connection with photography.

Practice, practice and practice.....

Help! I'm stuck in a rut, and I can't get out!

I know I can get out. It's just that when you are in a rut, it feels like all your creative efforts are for naught.

I know what I need to do, I just need to do it... that is:

Do it....

Yesterday I took 200 photos they may all fall on their face, or there may be 4 or 5 keepers, and perhaps one gem. Or none, we shall see.

Today I resolve to do the same, and hit the recording studio for a few hours of solo recording work.

Flickr: Project oriented photography group

Project oriented photography group on Flickr

I enjoyed participating in SoFoBoMo so much, that I want to extend it, or at least practice more project based photography. I'm willing to bet there are a few more SoFoBoMo'ers that may want to do so as well.

To that end I have created a Flickr group for it.

Group Description:

======

This is a group dedicated to the photographic series. I have found that a series of photographs that belong together are not only dificult to produce, but far more rewarding than striving to produce a single photo that might say ... make explore, or be included in a greatest hits photo compilation.

If you prefer the long playing form of photography, please join and post your projects to the pool. (See posting rules).

======

Lets see whats in your project!

Project oriented photography group on Flickr

SoFoBoMo wrapup: Shooting Rodin

(Photo: From a promo shoot for one of the bands I'm in)

Shooting other peoples art is tricky. Some might say that when you photograph another persons art you should endeavor to only document the piece, and not try to expand on it or try and claim your photograph as art. Some would say the exact opposite. I am leaning towards the latter.

That is to say, I did not approach the sculpture garden to just inventory and document the works there. I wanted to capture it's effect on me, it's often visceral and wrenching effect. So I put all of the tools I could to work towards that end, camera position, composition, light, focal length, aperture, bokeh etc.


The Martyr, Rodin

Light became a bit of a problem, in that there was way too much hard light most of the time. I had set aside lunchtime to work on this project so the middle of the day was when I had to shoot. I was lucky in that there were some (rare) overcast days while I was there.

Over the course of shooting I tripped the shutter a total of about 1000 times on 6 trips of between 1 and 2 hours each. It's a 15 min round trip to the garden from work, so a few long lunches were involved.

All of the photos were imported into Aperture for initial editing and ranking. However, my fuzzy month was made even more fuzzy because of that crazy bad flu going around. Being in bed ate up a lot of shooting and editing time. As a result I spent my up-time shooting, and down time in bed. This left most of the sorting and editing to the end which, in hind sight, was a mistake.

Looking at the book now (with a weeks perspective on it), I should have cut it down to about 1/2 the size. But, without the limitations of SoFoBoMo I bet I would still be out shooting.

Next: Creating the book itself

SoFoBoMo Wrapup: Why I love/Hate to talk about gear

(Photo: From a promo shoot for one of the bands I'm in)

In short-
Why I love to talk about gear: I'm a geek/knob twiddling boob.

Why I hate to talk about gear: The knob twiddling boob in me often gets in the way of producing creative output.

There were some great essays (here and here) regarding the question of "Is it the camera or photographer?"

After reading both I decided to tell all my friends to buy the gear listed below, but only if they wanted to be serious photographers. NOT! ... :)

Truly, in photography, music or any other kind of art it is the passion of the individual and the ability to communicate that passion in their medium that matters most. If the person is truly passionate, they will also select the tool that allows them to best communicate that passion. Both of those essays make that point, to me at least.

To that end, these are the tools I used to try and communicate what the Rodin Sculpture Garden at Stanford is like:
Cameras:
Canon G9 point and shoot
Canon 400D XTi

Lenses:
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8
Canon 85mm F1.8
Canon 50mm F1.4
Sigma 30mm F1.4
Canon 75-300 F4-F5.6

In addition, I decided early in this project, not to put any info about the gear used in the book. I also decided to not us the words "me", "mine" or "I" anywhere in the book. The book is not about me, or my gear. The book is about the Rodin Sculpture Garden at Stanford. I have too much respect for the art Rodin created to put anything else in the book that was not on point.

But ... perhaps I should include a BIO in the next book, and a gear list. I did enjoy reading those in the other SoFoBoMo Projects..... :)

Next: Shooting SoFoBoMo Style ... I think ...

SoFoBoMo wrapup part 1, back to the beginning

(Photo: "Mike" From a promo photo shoot for one of my bands)

I've completed my SoFoBoMo book. I did it even though I had the worst Flu I have ever had in my life! I may have finished the book, but I did not get a chance to blog about it much at the time. So I will roll back and blog about it a little before I move on to my next project.

To begin from the beginning then... My interest in Photography has lead to an interest in The History of Photography, which has lead to an interest in Art history which has lead to ... etc etc etc... Now I cant help it, I'm obsessed with the visual arts.

I decided to make SOFoBoMo a learning experience as well. I picked a subject I knew little about, but found fascinating, and used SoFoBoMo as an excuse to research and learn more about it.

I first heard about the Rodin sculpture garden from my friend Kenny, he used some photos he took there for an album cover. While watching the Gallery Channel I ran across a fascinating biography of Rodin put the two together, I realized I was sitting on (near) the third largest collection of pieces by this master in the world.

The third factor that lead to selecting this subject was happenstance, I had to deliver of a performance contract to a client at Stanford. While there I took a walk around campus with my camera to see what I could see. I walked into the The Burghers of Calais and fell in love with these bronzes as a photographic subject.

Next entry "Why do I need to talk about gear?" or "Why I love to talk about gear" ... or something similar... :)

Rodin - SoFoBoMo 08 - Is done!

Download Rodin, SofoBoMo 08 PDF (22mb)

It's done, just under the wire ... I could fuzz the month, but why stress on it. I just wich I could have done 2 in the fuzzy month to get a a Paul Butzi print.

I was a little rushed at the end to get the book finished, I will blog about the process ... after work.... :)

I just noticed that SoFoBoMo.org is running. It will be nice to have a place to host this and future SoFoBoMo'ers.

Update: Since I did not have the time to blog much while I was doing the book, I'll spend some time blogging it now, revising and extending my remarks:
SoFoBoMo wrapup part 1, Back to the beginning
SoFoBoMo Wrapup: Why I love/Hate to talk about gear
SoFoBoMo wrapup: Shooting Rodin
SoFoBoMo wrapup: Processing the files
SoFoBoMo wrapup: Creating the PDF with Aperture

(Sofobomo) Time is not on my side, but I sold a photo!

I want to finish! But time is slipping, into the future (A truism by the Steve Miller band)

I am close, I have edited the shots down to 108, and may bring them down further depending on how the layout goes.

Some amazing books going up. I hope I get mine done in time

In other news:
I sold my first photograph!

I am now a professional photographer... heh.... it was a framed and matted version of the pic below.


It was the fist time I ever displayed my prints in public.

I played a show with my good friend Kenny Schick, we both displayed our prints. We had a great time playing, I opened the show, Kenny and Heather played, then all three of us did 4 songs together.

It was fun!

And there was a documentary crew there ... but thats a long story.

Kenny was playing, my favorite, "Calling you" in this shot. The song involves some percussive guitar slaps, very cool. Check out his music

Resignation

Today will be my last shoot for SoFoBoMo Book one. If it is not, I will never finish. I have enough shots to do it... so as one horse said to the other "Why the long face?"

I want perfection, it is in my nature. Perhaps it is even the reason I take photos and play music, it's all about the pursuit of the perfect moment. Well, it is for me at least.

However, if I don't finish, I fail. Failure is as far from perfection as one can get.

So... last shoot ... today.

And, for LeeAnne, I have had five shoots at an hour each so far and generally click the shutter around 200 times each time I go out (Filling a 2 gig card). However, I may only get 4 or 5 shots that are up to snuff, or none ... as has happened ... so while I have more than enough shots that *could* be used for the project, I'm not sure if I want to use them.

Of yesterday and today, SoFoBoMo

"If the artist only reproduces superficial features
as photography does, if he copies the lineaments
of a face exactly, without reference to
character, he deserves no admiration. The resemblance
which he ought to obtain is that of the soul;
that alone matters; it is that which the sculptor
or painter should seek beneath the mask of
features." A. Rodin

From the book "Art by A. Rodin"

I love google books.

SoFoBoMo MoFo

I cant resist ... I will be doing the SoFoBoMo boogie.

My subject is the Rodin sculpture installation at Stanford University in Stanford California. Stanford has the third largest collection of Rodin in the world, including

* The Burghers of Calais
* The Gates of Hell
* The Kiss
* The Thinker

Amazing art to look at, let alone photograph.

photomusings.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/solo-photo-book-month/