101/365: J Juggles.

My friend Tavener. Master juggler, musical genius, Boston Park-walker, Blueman.

-llg

100/365: Ice is i.

It was a cold winter, very cold for NC. Our nearby Lake Michael froze over, and Rita still loved it.

-llg

99/365: H is Homemade.

And delicious! The wife makes wonderful bread. Fresh out of the oven, the butter practically spreads itself for you, knowing that it is it's Destiny to be joined with this bread and consumed.

-llg

97/365: G has Gravity.

Thought it'd be fun to do a composite today. This was actually just from the test images, but with a bit of work in photoshop, I was digging it enough to use as the real deal...

Basically, this involved shooting 2 images: one without Bri in the shot, and one with her laying down, on the floor in front of the window. In photoshop, I cut her out and flipped her around to the ceiling, and used the first shot to put the floor back in. Once she was positioned on the ceiling, I drew in her shadow, based on how it looked on the ground (the angles are pretty close). Then some colors and contrast adjustments. I ended up flipping the image upside down just to see what it looked like, and loved it, so I kept that.

-llg

96/365: Fresh is F.

Gathered herbs from the garden for this shot, about 3 minutes before I clicked the shutter. So yeah, they're fresh. Almost had some song lyrics...but the thyme isn't up yet. Still, I thought I might add a bit of typography to this one.

Shot with a large softbox at 12 o'clock and an Orbis ringflash on camera. Wasn't sure about the double wood textures, so I tried an alternate, which I also liked, but it works in a ver different way. Which one do you like better?

-llg

95/365: E is Education.

I have a lot of photography books. My little sister got me a comprehensive 35mm guide when I got my first SLR, the Canon AE-1, and through it I learned the technical side of my SLR and the basics of photography in general. That was in 1997, I think...I didn't really buy another photography book until about two years ago, not long after I discovered the Strobist website and it awakened a desire to consume information and LEARN such as I hadn't felt since somewhere in the middle of college. It was then that I ramped up an addiction to photography books. Not so much books of individual artists and their work, although there's a few in the library now, but technical books. Instructional stuff. Joe McNally bridged that gap better than any, combining a portfolio of his amazing work with a story and lots of technical expertise along with each photo. But he's the exception to the rule. Most of the books are purely technical guides: exposure, composition, using lights, night and low-light, panoramic, and a host of photoshop books. Not all are purely technical, there's some travel guides and a few that are dedicated to the more philosophical, lifestyle aspects of a photographic life. It was in this last genre that I started to get burned.

Not burned out, but burned as in, let down. My first bad photo book was kind of a shock. I paid $30 for this tripe? The guy was saying nothing I didn't already know, or it was stuff I just didn't care about. Wait, that's not true; I wanted to care, I mean, it was about photography...but I couldn't, because I didn't like the guy's stuff. His photos did NOTHING for me. Not that they sucked, not really, just, they didn't do anything for me. No inspiration, no desire to emulate or copy his style or subject matter, or learn from him. So I couldn't take him seriously.

Since then, I've picked up a few more books that I can't finish, even if I hit them with momentum knowing that if I slow down, I'll just move on past them. Looking at those I don't like so much, I'm now noticing a common thread: they are one photog's perspective on the trade, his/her philosophy mixed with a little technical instruction here and there, but mainly their own personal approach and advice. Some of you may have been fortunate enough to have had a teacher or teachers that have rocked your world, someone who got you excited to learn and really connected with you. I'm sure all of you have had teachers that did just the opposite, that made education hard to stomach and snuffed your desire to learn anything from that person. I suppose it's the same with authors: some speak to us, some don't, and most, if not all, of that is subjective.

 
But there's another thing. The technical books worked for me; I enjoyed learning new hard skills like balancing ambient light with flash, or using Curves in Photoshop. And I learned a lot from these books. And I kept thinking, soon, I will use this skill, or that technique. Some I did indeed use, but many I have not. And soon the tech books were just retelling me things I had already heard many times, so I branched out to the philosophical books. But these were too personal, too subjective, and I couldn't connect with most of them. Now I'm beginning to see the problem and solution: I need to stop concentrating on the technical side of things as much, and focus on MY OWN personal philosophy in photography and art. To develop my vision, so to speak. This still involves learning both sides, and learning from others especially, but I think it has a lot less to do with sticking my nose in a book, and more with sticking it under a camera. I've always wanted people/teachers/internet/books to tell me how to do a thing; not out of laziness, so much as I didn't want to reinvent the wheel if I could save the time. When it came to the philosophy of art, the answers didn't cut it for me…because I have to supply my own answers to those questions. And here we are, another day closer to an unobtainable zenith of knowledge and experience that will always loom in front of me, only to prove a false peak once reached. I'm ok with a lifetime of learning. As long as there's beer at the after party.

-llg

94/365: D is a Diving Dog.

Took awhile to train Rita to jump off the pier when fetching...She has no qualms about water, but the jump took some convincing. Nowadays, she doesn't think twice. That scum in the water is pollen, which is peaking here in NC.

93/365: C is Curious.

My little cousin, in her playhouse. Sitting outside of it, I shot a few frames with a 70-200mm lens...What I love about this frame is the light: it's all natural, but the way it hits her face is like something you'd sculpt in a studio. A directional but soft light on her face from the open sky above, and soft rim lights on the sides of her face from the little windows on those sides of the playhouse. Reminds me of how Irving Penn used a large tent with removable panels to achieve studio-like control over natural light, in remote places around the world. Not that I had that kind of foresight. I just thought it was a cute shot.

-llg

92/365: Blues is B.

These trucks have sat on one of our bike routes since we moved to Mebane, although they have moved around, even changed fields at one point...Which is strange, since they seem pretty permanently parked. I couldn't even get all the trucks into this shot, there's a few more on either side.

Headed east this weekend for some river time. May not be able to post till I get back, so I'll catch up then.

-llg

91/365: A is Authority.

As in, "Respect my AuthoriTIE!" New Month, time for a new theme... I may kick myself later for this one, and it may be cliche, but I'm going to do a picture for each letter in the alphabet. It's been done and done, I know, but I like the forced thinking that's involved. I've only really had themes that were technical in nature to this point, now I'd like to use a more conceptual approach, and utilize whatever technical tool or skill set I have at my disposal to achieve the concepts. Thanks to Krista and Neil for separately inspiring this direction.

A little background on the shot. That jacket was my uncle's, who was a deputy sheriff and detective in Bertie County. He's retired now, if farming full time counts as retired. My cousin, his son, my best friend growing up, now wears these stripes. Scary job, worthy of respect, even if a handful of low-caliber individuals out there have given cops a bad name (I met a few of them in New Hampshire once...) They are just people too, but those that understand the power and responsibility they shoulder are making the world safer for the rest of us.

Also personal to me is the shotgun, which has been seen on here before. It belonged to my wife's grandfather Homer. I chose this pose so you could see the carving on the stock, which Homer did by hand. (Although, at this angle, the duck looks like it's falling dead out of the sky, which I suppose is appropriate.) It was given to my wife and I by her father, and even if it didn't work it'd still be one of my prized possessions for it's history. But it does still work, which is also awesome, especially in a field with some clay pigeons and a few buddies.

The final personal item is the mustache, carved out of my beard by myself. Insert appropriate line from Super Troopers here.

-llg

90/365: Abbey Road.

I didn't quite get the marching order right...according to the the shot I'm copying here. But hey, it was on the fly. They did pretty darn good.

-llg

89/365: Above the Clouds

Ansel Adams said he photographed Weather. You think of his landscapes, and you imagine the geological features, like El Cap or Half Dome, other giants of the West. But it was the weather in his photographs that made them, and the light that occurs when there's clouds in the sky.

88/365: When the Light's Right.

When the Light's right, I step into my car
Pilot the wheels to a fence in a field
Careful not to stick in the ditch
Walk out with the camera and camera goes click.

-llg (with a line borrowed from Krista Little)

87/365: Her Direction

Archival shot I wanted to post while I was doing the Strobist-themed shots. On the UNC hospital campus with my 50mm lens and 5dmk2, just looking for pictures, I leaned over the guardrail and saw lines that I liked, and waited for the human element to enter. BINGO!

-llg

86/365: Moon and Fog.86/365: Moon and Fog.

Stayed up late to record a night timelapse last evening. The fog rolled in heavy for a bit, and I grabbed a few shots of the moon filtering through the trees around 3:30am. We had our Late March / Early April frost last night. There was a set of owls making the strangest noises I've heard since we had a fox hanging around our old house. I love Spring.

-llg

85/365: I can smell the edge of the frame.

Testing out some outdoor lighting today, this is one of those shots you do where you turn the camera around in your hands and grab a wide shot to see how the light is wrapping. Heavily cropped, I might add.

Strobist info: this is classic watt seconds vs daylight. Shooting a Bowens monoblock, which is 700w/s I think, thru a medium softbox, camera right. ISO 100, f/18, 160/sec, and the already cloud-covered sky goes nighty-night. Notice there's zero fill on the dark side of my noggin. The strobe is turned up, not quite all the way I don't think, but up there.

-llg

84/365: Live Music is Better, Bumper Stickers should be issued.

Here's Jessica Lee Mayfield, aka Chittlin, at the Local 506 in Chapel Hill, NC, sometime last year.

Jim Marshall died yesterday. His book Not Fade Away was the first collection of photos I ever bought. I think at the time, the draw was the mythological music beings that were portrayed in the book, and less the picture themselves, but as photography has come to dominate my brain (and music has taken a back seat), I look at it now with awe at his mastery of craft. His ability to capture his subjects' personalities (many of them larger than life), be it through a timely moment or brief expression, was a thing of art. You may not know his name, but you've seen his pictures of Hendrix, Dylan, Clapton, Joplin, The Who, The Cream, the Beatles, etc etc. He put Rock and Roll on film, when it was really Rock and Roll, even as it was becoming that.

Marshall's images seem so intimate sometimes, it's as if he was best friends with every act he shot, even though reading his anecdotes, you know that wasn't the case every time. His live shots captured the moments that make live music photos work: the raised arm of Jimi as he bites his lip and bends 3 strings at once, Pete Townshend on his knees at dawn after playing half the night at Woodstock. You know that shot of the Allman Brothers in the alley with all their gear boxes on the Fillmore Album? Jim Marshall. That shot of Johnny Cash giving the finger at San Quentin Prison? Jim Marshall.

I have dabbled in music photography, at live shows and with bands I know personally through my own short musical career, and I've come away with some decent keepers, but I've never put enough time in to get the full hang of it. Someone who I think very much has is Mike Beyer, aka Crackerfarm. Mike is a really funny guy, and perhaps the most talented shooter I've ever met. Take a look at his stuff, especially his music images...he gets the essence of his subjects, and even though the images are less documentary and more art, the personalities carry through.

The posted shot was made on 35mm film, scanned in and dodged and burned. Gotta love the grain on that Ilford 3200.

-llg

83/365: The Joy of Bubbles.

This is not the end of my black and white stint, but seeing as how it was one of the better shots I have taken in awhile, and I liked it better in color, I had to go with it. I hope you like it. I was asked to take some bubbles pictures awhile back, but this one is more of a wife picture, so Alex, I'll get some bubbles lined up proper for you soon enough.

-llg

82/365: I Knead You, Baby.

Wifey was making some pizza dough for dinner with friends tomorrow. I had set up my softbox and monoblock to try for some food photos after I finished cooking. Those shots didn't turn out, but I like this one.

Bowens Espirit Gemini Monoblock (that's basically a big flash that plugs into the wall) in a medium softbox out of the top of the frame, aimed down at the hands.

-llg

81/365: The Creep at the Back of the Bus.

Shot for an hour on my bus, for a potential collection later. I was trying to find something good to do in black and white in all the shots I had taken, but the thing about the bus is that it looks much better in color, even the interior. So I staged a scene I thought might be interesting...but it wasn't. Until I took it into photoshop and cut loose.

Sometimes you just have to embrace the manipulation. For most of these last 81 days, I have avoided overt photoshoppping beyond that which made the pictures better. In most cases, I like to try to get the image right in the camera, and add a bit of punch or whatever a photo may need in Photoshop and/or Aperture. But sometimes I need more, and I'll let the photo head in a graphic, almost illustrative direction. For this one I added textures, selective blurs, and pushed pixels around. Made the border with different brushes in photoshop. Turned out pretty creepy. I like creepy.

-llg