Pentax K-x

So I was able to get the new Pentax K-x Digital SLR with Christmas money. I chose the white body for a change of pace. It's a beautiful camera and really excels in low light. One feature, which has surprised me is the camera's video mode. It' shoots 720p HD. I assumed this feature would be gimmicky. Due to the lack of an audio input, the camera can't be used for any truly serious film-making, but with a nice lens, the sensor can produce some very nice video footage. This is a great feature for event photographers, specifically wedding photographers, to use to gather beautiful video close ups of floral arrangements, the cake, or candid shots of guests. The footage gathered could really spice up a photo slideshow in post post production.

I shot a short video in my town's library to see what the camera could do. The manual focusing was a little tricky, but with practice, the camera can produce truly cinematic shots.

A Magnum Christmas

I'm always interested to look through Magnum's archives for big events and holidays. I found one image in particular which stood. I soon realized I had seen it before; in gatefold of Bob Dylan's Christmas album. Bob sure does have good taste.

Hanging With The Kids...

Winter

Thanksgiving Weekend

Portrait

Yesterday an informal photo session with my wife yielded this photo. It ended up being one of my favorites. It's amazing what a nice lens and pretty girl can produce. It makes my work easy.

James Dean's Records

Slate's "Today's Pictures" section, which features a gallery of selected photos from the Magnum archives features photos hearkening back to when kids actually bought their music in a physical medium. Being a record aficionado and photographer the gallery naturally peaked my interest. There were quite a few pictures in the series that stood out, but my favorite was this shot of James Dean listening to records.

Baby Sam

It's wonderful having an adorable son for a myriad of reasons, but as a budding photographer one the better perks of the father job is having constant photographic access to a gorgeous child. Still, even the most beautiful babies are challenging subjects. For one, they don't support themselves so they spend most of their time laying down or being held. Neither pose is particularly flattering. The key is to neutralize backgrounds and distractions to focus purely on the baby. Here are a few recent shots of my baby, Sam, as well as his "cousin", Kelly.

Football Season

While football is anything but my sport of choice (I'd prefer to play soccer or watch basketball), I look forward to and very much appreciate sitting out in beautiful fall weather taking in a game. The scale of the game is part of it's appeal but can be a bit off putting to some people. The players are big and the stadiums are bigger. If you've ever watched an NFL game you know the whole thing is just grandiose. While pro football isn't my cup of tea, I enjoy spending Saturday's with my my dad, watching our favorite college team battle it out on the green. Our team of choice, Illinois, hasn't performed at the level we were expecting so to entertain myself at last weeks game, I snuck in my dSLR and collection of manual lenses to get some practices shooting in less than optimal conditions. The results were varied, but it made a much to be desired game a lot more entertaining.

Pentax K-X

So, I have my eye on a great new camera by Pentax. It has the best features at it's price and it comes in white which would make it a great tool for informal portrait sessions with families and kids..much less intimidating than a big black monstrosity. It's small and light, and the test images show that it has fantastic high iso performance making it a great low light camera. I already have a Pentax K100D, so I could use my collection of manual primes with it. It comes out later this month so I have to scrounge of 650 dollars quick.

Test Shoot

While we were out frolicking in the park, my wife and I decided to practice some Senior picture type of portraits. The shots turned out great. Caitlin looks great in the pictures and I really like the color of the greenery in these shots. (Caitlin just gave birth to our son less than a month before these shots were taken, crazy, I know!)

Strange Encounter...

So, I'm out taking pictures in Mansfield, just looking for something interesting and an older lady comes up to me and says, "Is there anywhere in this town to get something to eat that doesn't serve alcohol?", and I say "No". So, she then points towards me and asks "if that thing is on". I think she's talking about my headphones, which I have pulled out to talk, and respond, "Yeah, but it's ok". She apparently thinks my SLR is a video camera and looks quite disturbed. At this point, I get this Twilight Zone feeling and want badly to get away from her. She then looks me square in the eyes, her face scowls, and she barks slowly and in a very deliberate fashinon, "It's not right to go around taking pictures of people!"

I just stood there for a second, taken aback, and then turned around and got away from her. I don't know what it was, but something about this woman was terrifying. Now I just wish I would have actually gotten her photograph! If she was going to be mad at me anyway I might as well have gotten the shot.

4th Of July Family Pics

(explosion)

Iran in Pics

The situation in Iran is dire with riots resulting from the rigged reelection of Mamouaodjfakafovcan. The following blog has some amazing photos taken of the rioting.

http://shooresh1917.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post_13.html

Tom Waits, Why Have You Evaded Me?

Any serious music connoisseur has a list of artists in the back of their mind that they know they will someday explore but just aren't ready for yet. I myself prefer to ignore the lists of "essential" music and let my discoveries happen organically. Sure, I could download torrents of every album on Rolling Stone's or Pitchfork's Greatest Albums Evah list, put them on my ipod and spend a few days trying to digest as much of it as possible, but is that really the best way to listen to music?

In order for an artist to make it on to my ipod they have to slowly creep into my consciousness and earn my trust. Generally, whether I know they're biography or not, I want to, through the music, feel like I understand them on some level. This takes time and can be a slow process, but ultimately tends to be much more rewarding than trying to cram as much music that I'm told to like into my brain, just so I can say I've heard it. Of the great respected white, male, aging, American (or Canadian-sorry Neil) songwriters, only Tom Waits has managed to stay off my ipod. I've done Dylan, Springsteen, Cohen, Costello, Prine...you name it. Of course, I had a copy of Rain Dogs, but I never managed to get far beyond Singapore. For one, the voice just scared me. It really scared me. I like my music to push a little bit, that album was a shove. Sure, Dylan's current voice is a little jarring but he gave a while to get used to it, and even then, it's more Howlin' Wolf than Exorcist. So my copy of Rain Dogs has sat on the shelf abandoned for over year and half.

Finally a few weeks ago, I gave it a go and something clicked. I made it to Hang Down Your Head and things started getting clearer. By Time was I knew this album would be one of my favorites. The next day I checked up on Lala a trading, streaming, and buying site and added all of the Tom Waits albums to my want list. Lala tends to have certain albums available for purchase at really great prices and I noticed Closing Time was just 5 dollars so I decided to bite. I was always under the impression that Closing Time was Tom's singer songwriter album, before he got all weird and good. I was very wrong. His voice isn't as deep and dirty as his other albums, but it's not sugary sweet either. The only song I knew very well before hand was Ol' 55, of Eagles fame. I like the Eagles song alright before, but was amazed at how great the real version was. Playing it on my old out of tune piano made it even sweeter. I've come to love bluesy Virginia Avenue and gorgeous Grapefruit Moon as well. The whole album is great and ends perfectly with the horn laden instrumental, Closing Time. I've only had it for a week, but it's propelled me to purchase cheap cd copies of Swordfishtrombones and Frank's Wild Years from Lala, as well as getting into bidding wars for vinyl copies of Small Change and The Heart of Saturday Night. More on those when I listen to them.

Digression...

With masks on they huddle in squalor,
Air Force One approaches from the east,
Railroad boys, with purple dyes,
Humble my wretched priest.

People are dirty and liars,
That’s my maniacal taste,
Infant girls, with Danville curls,
Lie in the fireside waste.

Trees are green in the city,
But in my home country they’re black.
Working class dogs, the insolent cogs,
Fighting for a spot in the sack.

I follow them home on the subway.
They don’t see me, I don’t see them.
Commuting home, they cry alone.
And I sing a Methodist hymn.

Part Two

Little dark babies all out in the street.
With open mouths and dirty feet.
They don’t care about this song,
Or what record I put on.

I put it on for you and me.
So we could dance, and whisper sweet.

To call a song, a song, a song.
Call it out, tell it off.

Part One:

In nineteen hundred eighty-four,
I looked up above my door,
And saw him looking down on me.
Oh pity my soul, I just don’t see.

See his plan for you and me,
That works for them, but not for thee.

See the sky and windows green.
See it all above me.

Midnight Movie, Morning Dawn

You’re out there, In the wicked heat,
And I’m here all alone.
Your things were strewn about on the floor.
But now there all gone.

Midnight movie and morning dawn,
Were our dusk and sun.
The who were on the radio,
And Jesus was the one.

I gave up love,
But got it back,
I'm sorry for your Pain.
I've cared for you ever since.
My feelings are plain.

Far off places were your touch,
I was on the floor.
My sister on the telephone,
While you called out on the whore.

Old Spanish Mission in my blood.
I never got it out.
The muscle car’s were boilin’,
As I came down from the mount.

I gave up love,
But got it back,
I'm sorry for your Pain.
I've cared for you ever since.
My feelings are plain.

People ask how you are,
I tell em’ I don’t know.
You’re just some dream I had one time.
From a father down below.

I gave up love,
But got it back,
I'm sorry for your Pain.
I've cared for you ever since.
My feelings are plain.

You’re with the girl from back before,
We arrived at this place.
How was I to know back then,
Where you’d find elastic lace.

Put my arms around her,
You know I’d do it now,
If it pulled me up towards Madison,
I’d gladly drive somehow.

From an interview with Bob Dylan that just came out today:

Bill Flanagan: A lot of performers give God credit for their music. How do you suppose God feels about that?

Bob Dylan: I'm not the one to ask. It sounds like people just giving credit where credit is due.

That pretty much sums it up, I'd say. I love this answer.

Record Store Day!!!

Today is record store day. For those of us for who which every Saturday is record store day, the public acknowledgement of our obsession is duly noted and quite appreciated. I frequent two record stores. One focuses almost completely on used, mostly 20 years and older records, and some used cd's. The selections good there, as I've found quite a few slabs of black wax worthy of my collectioin there, the prices on some of the more obsure titles seem a little high to me. (A 1980 album by David Allen Coe was $10). The combination of the high prices, with a slightly grumpy proprieter, make my visits to this record shop few and far between.

My main record store of choice, and my destination for record store day is Any Frequency in Monticello, IL. It's a small store in the downtown area and stocks most of the new releases as well as a modest selection of used offerings on cd. I go there mainly for new titles on vinyl. There is always a stack of stuff I'd like, so I have to restrain myself, and my wallet before leaving the store. Monticello is a great little town, so making the trip there every couple of weeks is nothing but a pleasure.

The best thing about the store, and small businesses in general, is the personal attention given to the customer. My wife and I have developed a great friendship with the owner of the store, and we always enjoy catching up while we peruse the stacks of new music. I never have to ask if the store will be stocking newest Bob Dylan release on vinyl, because I know there will already be a copy tucked away (along with any promotional stuff the store got) waiting for me in the back. That's the kind of service that is hard to come by these days. So, if you get the chance, find a a independent record store in your area, and see what they've got. I'm sure you'll find something.

http://www.recordstoreday.com

"Feel a Change" Revisited...

...Not long ago I introduced the second new song, I Feel A Change Comin' On, released to the public from Bob Dylan's new album, Together Through Life. I feel I should clarify, because I, in my first encounter with the song, dismissed it as light. Of course, maybe that isn't such poor description, if presented without the insinuation of inferiority to past work. The song is in fact light, in a breezy sort of way. I'm really coming around to the music. The interplay between instruments is wonderful, and the playing sounds effortless.

On first listen the style reminded me very much of Spirit On the Water, from Dylan's last album, Modern Times. It's not that I dislike, Spirit On the Water, but I've always felt that while the song had potential, it was a lacked focus and was probably a shell of what it could be. First of all, in the first few bars of the song, there is what appears to be a wrong note played on the piano, which is mentally distracting, and unlike some other errors in playing on Dylan records, detracts from the enjoyment of the song. The song also goes on too long. At half the playing time, the song would be great, but half way through I start looking for the the next button.

I Feel a Change Comin' On doesn't suffer from such problems. While musically, the two songs are related, Change feels much more alive and current. Even though Dylan is a working within musical forms long since past, this record sounds like today. It's a new interpretation for 2009. I can't wait to hear more. It's less than two weeks now!