Its Only 365 Days
12 IMO
Throughout my life, creation has been at the forefront of my minds eye. With photography I find that I am no different in my desire to either create something in the after life of the photos I take, or to be able to see and capture what the world has created for me. As I have consistently done a Project 365 for the past 3 years, I have become very accustomed to shooting every single day, so it was with most difficulty that I had to choose 12 images to represent my year.
1. "Return of the Native." I see face paint as a fantastical extension of everyday make-up. Like a lot of face paint I do, I don't often start with a direction, I just go and see what happens. In this case, it became something that reminded me of tribal war paints. I spent all this time getting the lines even only to turn my head for a few shots because I needed a break from the lights and as it turns out, of all the shots, this one spoke loudest to me. It seemed so wild and savage, yet there was an elegance about it that resonated through the picture.
2. "Footprints" I cannot recall a single moment that aside from the occasional shot looking down on my shoes, that I have ever actually photographed my feet. I wanted to mimic the classic shot that children's photographers often take of a new born babies feet. In post I made the image very soft, almost dream like, kind of an imagined moment of peace in the womb.
3. "Strings Within" Music is truly a part of the pulse in my veins. I wake up every morning to it and end every night with it. This shot illustrates the constant symbiosis I feel when a song permeates my flesh and finds its way into my consciousness.
4. "Born This Way" This song resonated with me. We're born with this skeletal frame and it is the frame work that holds us up through life and helps us to push through whatever darkness to get to the light. This took me a really long time to meticulously paint all of this on, but when I'd finished, I felt proud, steadfast, defiant even. I don't think some people will ever understand what I create sometimes in my other work, but I find that in those moments of hesitation, I defer back to this image, this feeling, and I know it doesn't matter--I create because that's who I am, and I was born to be who I will always be.
5. "Smile" This is the day in earnest I learned to light paint words. I started small with a letter or two, (keep in mind, you have to write backwards) then figured out the longer the exposure the more time I had to create something. This led to one of the greatest nights of my life where myself and two of my friends went through the city painting anything we could get our hands on. We eventually "found our way" to the rooftop of a building in the downtown area, and then set about creating some epic images. We had so much fun that we didn't even notice the party on the rooftop of the building next to us. One of the guests eventually screamed over wondering what the hell we were doing with our flash lights and candles and glow sticks and then invited us to their party. So this image does literally make me smile to think of where it led.
6. "Eye" Blah day for photography, I was shooting out of a window. The photos were horrible. I then turned the camera on myself. For some reason I decided to use my hand to frame my eye. Happy accident. I found the image captivating and apparently so did Explore and a lot of viewers that found their way to it. As many images as I've seen of eyes, I've never seen one like this.
7. "Trouve" means found in French. A photog friend said there is no weather condition short of one which is life threatening that a photographer should not be able to shoot in. I'd strayed from shooting in the rain for a long time, so I took up the challenge on one of the rainiest storms this season. The streets were already flooding when I arrived on the trails, but I forged on despite stepping in massive puddles and soaking both of my shoes completely. I crossed this bridge with the water already threatening to overtake it and saw this one random lime sitting on the park bench. I had no real time to shoot, so I shot it and scurried across the bridge to higher ground in just enough time because no sooner did I make it back across the over pass, then did the water break the bank and flood the entire area. Such a simple composition, but quite an experience to get it.
8. "Metamorphosis" Being tall, I admire and respect the giraffe because I get it. When I wear even the tiniest of heels, I tower over everyone in my life, so I decided to imagine what it would be like to suddenly start taking on the attributes of this creature. I wanted to show a sort of mid range change, as if it were being documented in some lab, "Day 12, she's lost the normal coloring of the eye and the shape of her head has begun to change."
9. "Early" I have wanted to see the sunrise in this park in town for ages, and I always made it too late. This time I was early and was rewarded richly for my efforts. The light hit the water on the lake and everything lit up with the golden light. All the creatures, many whom I didn't know existed, were stirring. Every where I turned, there was something. This is a reed that was jutting out in the lily pond. The whole morning I had to keep reminding myself to relax and concentrate so as not to miss anything.
10. "Wicked" I loved this whole series. Its kind of alien meets feline. Those claws were fantastic.
11. "Chucks Love" Although these are not actually chucks, I have had a pair of chucks and/or chuck knock offs since I was a kid. I loved the striped pattern on these and have worn them to death. True chuck wearers know that you don't cast these aside when they get a tiny rip, or the rubber starts to peel, you wear them until a toe pops loose. Then and only then can you send them off to pasture.
12: "Rotation." In the trailer for Prometheus, they were running this ad, "Hello David" in which the character rotates. It reminded me of that shocking moment in Total Recall with Arnie where his head comes out of that woman's on Mars and the airlock busts open and everyone goes flying. I wanted mine to be a full rotation and so each piece is cut so that it ends with the next rotation concluding with the neck. I had to shoot this several times to get just the right amount of rotation. I loved the effect of adding the engineering schematics layer. It's very robotic to me.
12 IMO
Throughout my life, creation has been at the forefront of my minds eye. With photography I find that I am no different in my desire to either create something in the after life of the photos I take, or to be able to see and capture what the world has created for me. As I have consistently done a Project 365 for the past 3 years, I have become very accustomed to shooting every single day, so it was with most difficulty that I had to choose 12 images to represent my year.
1. "Return of the Native." I see face paint as a fantastical extension of everyday make-up. Like a lot of face paint I do, I don't often start with a direction, I just go and see what happens. In this case, it became something that reminded me of tribal war paints. I spent all this time getting the lines even only to turn my head for a few shots because I needed a break from the lights and as it turns out, of all the shots, this one spoke loudest to me. It seemed so wild and savage, yet there was an elegance about it that resonated through the picture.
2. "Footprints" I cannot recall a single moment that aside from the occasional shot looking down on my shoes, that I have ever actually photographed my feet. I wanted to mimic the classic shot that children's photographers often take of a new born babies feet. In post I made the image very soft, almost dream like, kind of an imagined moment of peace in the womb.
3. "Strings Within" Music is truly a part of the pulse in my veins. I wake up every morning to it and end every night with it. This shot illustrates the constant symbiosis I feel when a song permeates my flesh and finds its way into my consciousness.
4. "Born This Way" This song resonated with me. We're born with this skeletal frame and it is the frame work that holds us up through life and helps us to push through whatever darkness to get to the light. This took me a really long time to meticulously paint all of this on, but when I'd finished, I felt proud, steadfast, defiant even. I don't think some people will ever understand what I create sometimes in my other work, but I find that in those moments of hesitation, I defer back to this image, this feeling, and I know it doesn't matter--I create because that's who I am, and I was born to be who I will always be.
5. "Smile" This is the day in earnest I learned to light paint words. I started small with a letter or two, (keep in mind, you have to write backwards) then figured out the longer the exposure the more time I had to create something. This led to one of the greatest nights of my life where myself and two of my friends went through the city painting anything we could get our hands on. We eventually "found our way" to the rooftop of a building in the downtown area, and then set about creating some epic images. We had so much fun that we didn't even notice the party on the rooftop of the building next to us. One of the guests eventually screamed over wondering what the hell we were doing with our flash lights and candles and glow sticks and then invited us to their party. So this image does literally make me smile to think of where it led.
6. "Eye" Blah day for photography, I was shooting out of a window. The photos were horrible. I then turned the camera on myself. For some reason I decided to use my hand to frame my eye. Happy accident. I found the image captivating and apparently so did Explore and a lot of viewers that found their way to it. As many images as I've seen of eyes, I've never seen one like this.
7. "Trouve" means found in French. A photog friend said there is no weather condition short of one which is life threatening that a photographer should not be able to shoot in. I'd strayed from shooting in the rain for a long time, so I took up the challenge on one of the rainiest storms this season. The streets were already flooding when I arrived on the trails, but I forged on despite stepping in massive puddles and soaking both of my shoes completely. I crossed this bridge with the water already threatening to overtake it and saw this one random lime sitting on the park bench. I had no real time to shoot, so I shot it and scurried across the bridge to higher ground in just enough time because no sooner did I make it back across the over pass, then did the water break the bank and flood the entire area. Such a simple composition, but quite an experience to get it.
8. "Metamorphosis" Being tall, I admire and respect the giraffe because I get it. When I wear even the tiniest of heels, I tower over everyone in my life, so I decided to imagine what it would be like to suddenly start taking on the attributes of this creature. I wanted to show a sort of mid range change, as if it were being documented in some lab, "Day 12, she's lost the normal coloring of the eye and the shape of her head has begun to change."
9. "Early" I have wanted to see the sunrise in this park in town for ages, and I always made it too late. This time I was early and was rewarded richly for my efforts. The light hit the water on the lake and everything lit up with the golden light. All the creatures, many whom I didn't know existed, were stirring. Every where I turned, there was something. This is a reed that was jutting out in the lily pond. The whole morning I had to keep reminding myself to relax and concentrate so as not to miss anything.
10. "Wicked" I loved this whole series. Its kind of alien meets feline. Those claws were fantastic.
11. "Chucks Love" Although these are not actually chucks, I have had a pair of chucks and/or chuck knock offs since I was a kid. I loved the striped pattern on these and have worn them to death. True chuck wearers know that you don't cast these aside when they get a tiny rip, or the rubber starts to peel, you wear them until a toe pops loose. Then and only then can you send them off to pasture.
12: "Rotation." In the trailer for Prometheus, they were running this ad, "Hello David" in which the character rotates. It reminded me of that shocking moment in Total Recall with Arnie where his head comes out of that woman's on Mars and the airlock busts open and everyone goes flying. I wanted mine to be a full rotation and so each piece is cut so that it ends with the next rotation concluding with the neck. I had to shoot this several times to get just the right amount of rotation. I loved the effect of adding the engineering schematics layer. It's very robotic to me.