8-5-2010 Self Titled

Mostly running on autopilot recently. Work is scheduling me a lot more, which is good, because what the hell else do I have to do? A bit stressful though. I've an aversion to things that I don't know how to do. Thus far this job is either; things I know how to do changed drastically or, tasks I have no familiarity with. Ah well. It's good for me to be thrown out of my comfort zone.

Jessica, beautiful girl that she is, bought me Starcraft 2 as a surprise, totally unexpected. Had major issues installing/patching it. With it running and the increased hours at work, I have been a lazy boy.

Stupid carpal tunnel.

The photographs I took today, still working on the complicated "Nature is a blind malignant force that wants to eat your children," project. I'm conceptualizing a rad way to display these. We shall see what happens.

7-21-2010 A Time for Jobs, Dogs, and Malign Plant Life

New job new job. In a photography studio. That makes sense right? Seems great. Better than that real estate gig I've been trying to get off the ground. Funky little studio tucked into a shopping center down in Roseville. Assisting the owner tomorrow during a photoshoot with a one year old babychild today.

Looking at a map of Roseville to get my bearings before plunging into the madness put me in mind of Kevin Flanagan, as his house and the city of roses aren't all that far apart. Called him and dropped by. These were all taken on his property. I've decided to work on the "hungry nature," project wherever I am, as nature is most places. Bet I could work on this project anywhere in the world. Quite a thought really.

Kevin is a complicated man. There he is, sitting in his bus. He repairs/makes/creates/rigs many things in his yard and workshop there. My mom calls him "quite the renaissance man," as a cute way to describe someone who never quite has enough time or material to realize his many ideas and dreams. Seems to be a good state of mind. Dog's name was Regan, Josh's dog. I was trying to take a picture of a bird scratching for bugs, but Regan's spittle served nicely as a substitute. Nice enough after she was stuck in the back of the truck with me on the way to pizza & other soul nourishing items (beer for all, cigarettes for Josh).

7-19-2010 More Natural Distortion

"West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are deep valleys with wood that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight. On the gentler slopes there are farms, ancient and rocky, with squat, moss-coated cottages brooding eternally over New England secrets in the lee of great ledges; but these are all vacant now, the wide chimneys crumbling and the shingled sides bulging perilously beneath low gambrel roofs."
Opening paragraph of H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space

This seems to be my general theme for this project that has emerged from No Not Thought. Began with that shot from Nevada City, when the manzanita bush took on a more powerful presence than the sun. An unhealthy desire for life from a numbingly simple plant. There is also a mixture happening here; a confusion of the nature's mindless hunger with the familiar and sinister feel you get when looking at human objects being overtaken with plant or rot.

These photographs are meant to be bizarre and grotesque, and I believe more are forthcoming. As an additional note, these were all taken within 200 ft of my house in Newcastle. Might try to find some of the places Clark Ashton Smith (a local Lovecraft contemporary) wrote of and shoot them as well, I know he wrote of Bowman, and that is right up the road...

7-12-2010 The All-Mighty 10mm

Arriving home today was a strangely foreboding and exciting event. I wasn't sure if my dog would be alive. I was also unsure if my new photography equipment had arrived. As it turns out both were present and found where they were expected to be, my dog in her kennel and the equipment on my desk.

I ordered a new 10mm f/2.8 Sigma lens, along with a new battery and CF card. I still owe my father 200$ for the lens. The reason for the lens purchase is my new real estate job, but that doesn't mean I can't use it for other things right? Bet your ass that's right. This lens is a piece of work. The minimum focusing distance is something like an inch. You can jam it right up in someones face and the photograph the camera captures still has some background information.

These images are of spaces around my house. I kept getting my limbs in the shots on accident, I had no idea how exciting that would be. Tomorrow I start talking to real estate agents, convincing them that my speed and quality is worth their time and dime; which is, in its own dim way, mildly exciting.