Baseball Camp

Got the display on the metro front today. I didn't know that until I got into the office, but I like that the fine folks at The N&O have enough confidence to hand out display assignments to a freelancer like myself.

two thousand and ick

This 2008 has been a bad year for pictures. At least it feels that way.

I like to have made at least one photo I find fulfilling or beautiful every week. I don't always pull that off, but that's the goal. Sometimes I make a couple in a single day, sometimes I go through dry spells.

Well, I've made six so far this year.

Now, I'll grant you, I've spent a couple of weeks in Iowa for holidays and a funeral, and I don't count those pictures here. They'll have their own space, both in my mind and in my blog.

In the meantime, here's what happened in front of my camera in the first quarter of this year.

---

It's fun to come across old shacks. Harder to do around here, these days.



Two chickens became chicken. This was a hard, hard day.



This is The Blue Ox, aka C.W. He's old time country. Over his shoulder is his neighbor's expensive new home. Something there is that doesn't love a fence.



It's a prom fashion show... gave me Project Runway flashbacks.



I'm not one to post a lot of sports photos. I shoot a lot, for sure. Just don't post a lot. Sports pictures generally bore me. Now, there are a number of amazing photographers who do it right, whose work continually interests me. And as soon as I'm as good at sports as they are, I'll start my own sports blog. Meanwhile, I did like this picture.



Holy crap it's Easter!!!

the long mirror

In the process of fulfilling a promise I made, I ran across a few photos from '06 that got me excited, and that I haven't shared in blog or even email form before. So here's one of those blasts from the past, served up warm and friendly for you with a side of pancakes.

---

Colin, Allison and Seth taking a break in the rain forest.



I got my degree from Alien College!



Bald guy, at sunset, and yet it's not Andy. Weird.



Pilot dreams.



The race is over.

Am I Not Among The Early Risers

Am I not among the early risers
and the long-distance walkers?

I kept coming back to those opening lines from that Mary Oliver poem during a dawn race recently. A bit literal, I know, but the previous post, the line from Douglas Adams, got me thinking about that again, and some of the other reasons I've been up at dawn lately.

---

---

What will ambition do for me that the fox, appearing suddenly
at the top of the field,
her eyes sharp and confident as she stared into mine,
has not already done?

---

every dawn

There is a moment in every dawn when light floats, there is the possibility of magic. Creation holds its breath.

Douglas Adams
Life, The Universe And Everything

It's important not to bypass the profoundly meaningful messages you encounter throughout your day, even those tucked away in the silliest and most frivolous places.

Holiday Story Time!

the evening started off like any other...

bumblebees in the autumn leaves...



but the citizens were frightened...



it crept up on the town slowly...



no one knew where the first attack came from...



soon, the blood was everywhere...



fighting to survive, the citizens huddled together in the night...



the streets ran red...


as the sun rose, the bloodshed was over, but the survivors could never sleep again...

It's Holiday Time!

...so grab yourself a holiday hostage!

Happy Halloween, ya'll!

verses

This is my friend Victor:




This is also Victor. And this. And also this and this. The boy gets around.

He has started making jeans. This requires large machines that come from a place like this:




Large machines are not easy to transport:




Now the boy's running a sweatshop:




But at least his place look nice:

...and to wait...

Children who can delay gratification--wait for their reward--will be more successful than their peers. Psychologists at Stanford University put pre-school children alone in a room with a marshmallow. The children were told that they could either eat the one marshmallow in front of them or wait, and receive two marshmallows to eat. One-third of the children were able to wait the full 15-20 minutes for the second marshmallow. (source)

I like marshmallows.

I know I said back in November that one need only to be, and to wait. Well, I've waited. My readership has waited (thanks, mom). And when the waiting was over, we waited some more. Waiting wasn't actually intended to be the point of that post, but it's a lesson we've all learned.

So, as a reward for waiting, here are two marshmallows. I mean, a few pictures. These are from the end of the year. I'll start rolling with 2007 the rest of this week this month.



pregame


suburb parade


kenna y john henry


a game of dog


coat dancers


time-space warp


night dancers

only to be, and to wait

A few months ago, when I was last in Charlotte, I picked up a small book of photos by Cartier-Bresson at a used book store. My father recognized the name and planted a book in my hands called Sextet by John Malcolm Brinnin. One of the six tales in the book is about Brinnin's cross-country trip with Cartier-Bresson in 1947, their bizarre relationship, and the famous artists and thinkers they meet along the way.

May 27th. They visit Stravinksy's home in Los Angeles.

"Come," he says, "we shall visit the garden." We step onto a terrace above which is another terrace with trellises and an orange tree. "On days I wonder who I am," he says, "I climb to see the ocean. One look, then I climb down. You have seen the Pacific?"

"Never."

"Then you must climb."

I scramble up to the second terrace. "Now," he calls, "you are strong? You lift yourself to the branch, you look away from the sun, you see, like a floor maybe, one piece of blue."

"I see!"

"Bravo!"

When it's time to leave, he walks me to the car while Henri and Mme. Stravinsky follow behind. "You must not be so much the journalist," he says. "A journalist must hurry and do much, he must always use things. The poet, he has only to be, and to wait. Patience. You have lived with this man Cartier-Bresson. I know already you have much patience."

only to be, and to wait