Solstice Preparations

Happy holidays! Around here we celebrate the winter solstice, the time of the longest night and the promise of the returning sun. It is one of the holidays that Christmas was designed to supersede (since the historical Christ was actually born in May or June according to historians) along with Saturnalia and Hogmanay and likely others. And the "bring a tree inside and decorate it" tradition has its roots in European Pagan tradition associated with the solstice. Thus, we have a tree inside and we decorate it.



The above photo was last night and we were just starting with the little tree. It is a 6 foot tall Frasier fir and was rescued from the saddest, tiny lot at a large hardware store. An added bonus was that it fit entirely inside the Honda Fit and a tarp under it kept the car clean. Late this morning we got around to decorating it more thoroughly.



Our house is pretty small - roughly half the average house size here in the United States - so a small tree is scaled appropriately. We are also quite fortunate in that our cat, Nala, has pretty much no interest in the tree. She notices it and sniffs it, but has no interest in climbing it or (so far) otherwise batting at ornaments. I suppose that could change if she got bored enough. We ran into a bit of a dilemma when we pondered what to put on top of the tree. We do not have a star and an angel is out of the question, so...what? In a flash of inspiration, I remembered my "wire guy", the graduation trophy given to all new members of the aerial dance company I am part of. It has been hanging around since 2006, always near my field of view as I sit at my computer. Why not repurpose it? And the tree has a long, long top branch, and I am a pole dancer, so...



Yep, that fits this house! As I type this Reena is still sifting through the individually wrapped ornaments making sure we did not fail to put up a really cool one, and Pandora is supplying music under the heading of "winter solstice" (which is apparently a pretty broad category to them, but there has been a lot of Pogues so all is well). In addition I have started cold-brewing a batch of coffee for homemade coffee liqueur, and am having a good time dredging through my memory (and my big sister's too) to recall an old family recipe for dinner tonight.

May the joy of the various holidays that remain in the year be yours in abundance.

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"Fixing" a photo with a free app

I don't spend a lot of time using Photoshop for "effects". I mainly use it to correct minor tweaks to brightness and levels, cropping, and the odd pimple or two. I spend my effort on getting it right before I take the photo. Other than that? Not so much. But the kids these days are obsessed with Instagram, Hipstamatic, and the like, because a crappy cell phone photo is always better when the warts are obscured, right? [Insert visual of Yours Truly yelling at an empty chair, or telling passers-by to get off my lawn.] Anyway, I don't use my phone for photos because it is a crappy camera and I have a good camera. But I know a technology speed bump when I see one, so I thought it would be well for me to spend a little time playing with a free app to "fix" my photos.

I revisited one of my all-time favorite portraits using Snapfish, a free Android app for my tablet. It has all sorts of ways to take a good photo and add clutter and noise and bad color and random light leaks (because $10 Diana cameras are hip(ster)).

OK, all snark aside, I parked my butt in a coffee shop with my tablet and four or five of my favorite photos. Alas, they are mostly nudes of people who really should not have nudes of them floating around on the Interwebs, so you do not get to see them. I ran each through Snapfish to see what I could do with them, and to see if there really was any artistic merit to it. I wanted to create a faux vintage effect with either B&W or sepia tones, some film grain, a bit of softness (Vaseline on the lens?) and a bit of telephoto vignetting. Here is the result (the original is linked above).



What do I like about it? The blackness of the water and the soft blurring of the reflection I like a lot. The blown-out skin tones reduces the tan lines and sunburn a bit, so the viewer might not even notice it in a casual viewing. The detail in the hair was brought out nicely.

Things I don't like - but are choices I made, so they're my fault - is that the grain is heavy handed. The brightness is pushed to far, and I'll call that a consequence of my tablet having the brightness dimmed versus my Mac's screen. The faux sloppy print at the edges and light leak is...amateur. No one worth his salt would print that sloppy. Hell, I only darkroom printed twenty or thirty (B&W) images in my lifetime and none of them were that sloppy. One such print did have that much grain, though it was a very deliberate choice to have it. I was being an artistic twenty year old with a 35mm, and in retrospect, it reminds me of the opening sequence of the recent James Bond movie "Casino Royale": Harsh and gritty.

So the end result of my delightful afternoon is an image I like. If I were doing it again - within the realm of possibility - I would do some things differently. It was my first day playing with a free app after all. When all is said and done, it really is a lovely photograph.

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Studio work - New Momma!

I have posted a bunch of performance photos recently, but not much of my portrait work from the eyeDance studio. Here are a pair of recent photos, a before and after of a woman pregnant and with her first beautiful baby. I really enjoy this sort of work. It is rewarding to my spirit and brings delight to the client. Win-win!

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With this knife, I dub me...presumptuous?

I ordered a fancy-schmancy new kitchen knife that arrived today. All during my 20 years of martial arts study I vowed I would have a Damascus steel* knife and never bought one. It's hard to justify $400+ for what will essentially be a wall decoration. Anyway, my fighting days are behind me, even the pretend ones, and over the last years I noticed that I was paying more attention to our kitchen knives. We have a set we got as a housewarming present in 1986, the typical block of Chicago Cutlery. Serviceable, but no one's idea of good quality. Two years ago I bought a set of two santoku-style knives, 5" and 7". While still low-end knives from Calphalon, I found they quickly became my go to choice rather than the chef or utility from the set. To make a short story long...Reena's mom gave me an early Christmas gifts of cash and she always wants to know what we did with it, so I try to use it for something special. I decided I would use it towards a Damascus steel kitchen knife.

Oy, was that ever a rabbit hole to dive down.

Calphalon has a high-end line of knives, their Katana series, that featured Damascus, and surprisingly cheap; just under a hundred bucks for the 7" santoku. Surprisingly - as in wondering what's wrong with it. So I started researching, getting all fact-based instead of purely emotional (the whole impetus was emotional after all) and learned that most so-called Damascus steel kitchen knives are sort of, kind of real. Most of them are a solid steel core of proven contemporary steel (wow, are there ever a lot of steels out there for every purpose under the sun!) with some form of folded steel wrapped around it and blended in around the core. Thus the knife looks like the real McCoy, but the important part, the working part, is a single steel. OK, now I had to know why.

I turned to the artisan knife makers, the guys who work in real Damascus steel. At this point my metal lust spiked again and I pondered spending upwards of $400 on a kitchen knife. (Reel it in, big boy, you're not any kind of great chef!) It turns out that Those Who Know don't make kitchen knives out of true Damascus steels because the new metals are so much better for that purpose. The wrap-around technique is a looks good/works well balance. And then while I was looking at knife magazines and perusing online sources, I learned about a dude named Ken Onion. He is a young guy who became a notable knife maker with a lot of great ideas, and worked for/with a Japanese company called Shun on their kitchen knives. I had been looking at Shun knives and liked their style. Turns out he left Shun and opened his own design studio in Hawaii. From there, he formed a partnership with ChefWorks and found a domestic manufacturer to create a brand of knives called "Rain" (a Job Creator!). There's a promo video on the ChefWorks web page of him talking about his painstaking design work that was fun and interesting to watch - my wife liked it too because of his ergonomic study melded with his knife knowledge. The blades are distinctive in shape (read: beautiful) and etched (acid? If it said I don't remember.) with a random pattern that looks like water on the blade. It's tactile and serves the function of a Granton edge to keep food from sticking to it. I looked at all of them and settled on the 6" Utility, figuring it best suited the uses to which I was putting my santokus. I sincerely hope it is as beautiful to use as it is to look at, and may I be worthy of it. Others seem to think so as it is the Blade magazine 2013 'Kitchen Knife of the Year'. Time will tell!

(* I feel obliged to point out that though I chose to link above to the article about Damascus being rediscovered by metallurgists at Stanford University in 1981, their claim is questionable. In the book "Decorative and Sculptural Ironwork" (Meilach, ©1977) a significant portion of the book covers Damascus steel and the exploration of it by metallurgists Jim Wallace, Daryl Meier, and Robert Griffith, the "Damascus Steel Research Team" at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Their work was well advanced and quite detailed in the specifics of the properties of the various metals as well as the techniques used to create pattern-welded steel for blades and decorative objects. It was through articles by and about Daryl Meier that I became aware of Damascus steel in the early 1980's, and my metalsmith wife was surprised that I knew of it and shared the above referenced book with me.)

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More From Recent Gigs

I often try to keep my posts to 3-5 images. My last post hit that limit and yet I had a few more I wanted to share. We have had quite a number of corporate gigs recently, and they often generate fun and sometimes wacky photos. Her are a few more from a late summer performance in Milwaukee at the Summerfest grounds for an event called The All White Affair.


Testing the rigging before the crowd rolls in.

Since I am often the guy with the camera, I don't always get in the picture, but in this case one of the others picked up my camera and caught me in action. Getting paid to play is really good work if you can get it.



And here we are in the background over a crowd of a few thousand. Great fun!


For those who geek out on such things, this was shot at ISO 1600, f/4.0, and 1/40th second shutter. The camera was hand held.

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Mea Culpa and Self Indulgence

Bad blogger! I see it has been months since I posted here, and even the gentle prodding of an anonymous commenter did not spur me to action. Well please accept my humble apologies and allow me to rectify my tardiness with a most un-humble post.

As part of Cycropia Aerial Dance I have been delighted to have opportunities galore this fall to perform. I missed our big show in August as I was officiating at a friend's wedding. That was a very difficult thing for me to pass up because that show is typically the highlight of the year. The performances pictured here are from various corporate gigs we have done since late summer. We have THREE more this weekend (!) so there may be more coming soon.

Since this is primarily a photo blog, I will stop writing and let the photos speak. Thanks for stopping back.


On a pulley rig about 20 feet up in a business atrium.


Backstage. Aerial keeps the body toned!


Happy boy. Please ignore the slap-dash Photoshop blurring of the background!


Outside on the new portable rig. That is me, on the bottom.


One more on the portable rig. That is me, again on the bottom.

Cheerio!

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Scouting For A Shoot

Somehow despite not currently having a day job, I have managed to let this blog languish. Life has been filled with interesting things, but I have not felt compelled to do much in the way of photo documentation. And tellingly, what little I have done went first to Pinterest. Who knew?

Mambling aside, I have an upcoming photo shoot at Olbrich Gardens. It is a lovely place, and I have spent man hours there, and yet I needed to ascertain where the sun would be at the time we would be there. So I tossed the camera in a bag and went scouting. There are a lot of diverse nooks and crannies where photos could be taken, and abundant variety of background foliage. While visually intriguing this is not ideal for a group photo...



I did find several good locations so I got the scouting work done. But as a garden, there is so much to draw the eye! I do not recognize many of the plants there, and my memory is overwhelmed so I seldom remember more than one or two specific plants. No identification of the following from me then, but you are welcome to chime in with a comment if you recognize something.







Thanks for taking this moment to share my experience. I'll likely get another post out of this trip, and maybe even a black and white version.

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Unexpected Vacation Time

After an all too brief gig at the job I got in January, I find myself again unemployed. I can console myself knowing that the termination was budget motivated and not due to poor performance on my part. Simply the bad luck of being the New Guy when the ax needed to fall. Job-hunting is an unpleasant task, though being unemployed in July has its advantages.



Reena had three days in a row off, and I have all sorts of free time at the moment. So when her younger sister called and invited us up to visit at their cabin in the northern part of the state, we juggled some minor obligations, secured a cat-sitter, and whooshed three and a half hours north to spend a few days chillin' on a pair of small lakes. There was no agenda. There was plenty of cold beer, an array of suitable foods and snacks, weather that ranged from hot and sunny to cool and rainy (in the span of about an hour!), and loads of good conversation. Plus we got to toodle around the small lake in paddle boats while our gracious hosts showed us the sites, a sure way to remind yourself to slow down.


Feels like the African Queen!

The trip was the first highway venture for our new car, a 2013 Honda Fit Sport. It is rated at 27 MPG City and 33 Highway. During the first week we had it I managed to average just a bit over 30 MPG in almost exclusively city driving. On this trip, we filled the tank as we departed town, and when we arrived at our destination 210 miles away, the handy Average MPG feature of the car informed me that I had managed to coax 39.2 MPG out of it. Yeah baby! That is nearly as good as my motorcycles. The car has a 1.5 liter, 117 horsepower engine. That is essentially the same power as our previous car (2001 VW Beetle) with an engine 25% smaller. I think I will like this car.



I am back to job hunting today, but feel pretty relaxed and ready to roll with whatever comes. I am working with a consulting firm, the same one that landed me at the last job, and hopefully have an interview this week with a company that sounds like it might be a good fit. So my fingers are crossed for luck, and my suit is pressed and ready. Wish me luck!

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How About A Little Fire?

Forgive me friends. It has been six weeks since my last post. Life has been busy, sometimes deliciously so, and sometimes frighteningly so. Regardless, a lot has been going on but not a lot of it with camera in hand. Sometimes though, the odd moment of photographic fun pops up.

There is nothing like shooting fire spinners! The energy is always awesome, the flames seductive and the sound...if you have never heard the sound of fire being spun, you owe it to yourself to experience it up close and personal. The spinners are a unique breed with an honest to goodness relationship with fire. For some it talks to them and feeds their soul. There were images of this first spinner that made her look stronger, but this one struck a nice balance to my eye.



This woman is clearly a performer and her demeanor brightened the moment she saw my camera. She is a musician/singer/performer named Wild Flower. Check out her interesting work HERE.



This last photo is one that captivates me. Everything about it feels right and I totally captured the moment. And what makes this even more awesome? This woman's last name is Sparks! Oh yeah.

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Behind the scene at last night's performance

Cycropia Aerial Dance had a gig last night in Milwaukee at an old warehouse space repurposed for gala events. I should say that a part of the space is renovated. Plenty of it still looks like a 150-year old warehouse. Our "changing area" this time was a basement hallway - a finished hallway - but a hallway nonetheless. Ambient temperature was mid-60's (F). Not great for standing around in a skin-tight lightweight costume just before you are going to want your muscles warm and supple. While we were all getting ready, I took a wander with my camera. A few steps from our changing area was ...



Nice, huh? In the same general vicinity was a different hallway, this one a bit less creepy.



As is typical, my eye soon went to the details. There was much dust and dirt in this part of the building, and I needed to keep myself looking show worthy, so I did not delve too deeply.







Lots of dust and dirt, rust and peeling paint. Working from the assumption that the entire building probably looked a lot like this when it was renovated, it is pretty amazing how far they have taken the parts that are being used, and the vast potential of the remaining space is interesting. I suspect that as their successes build, they will continue to build out and clean up more and more of the building. It should be really interesting to see what it looks like in another decade.

And here you thought my performance life was all glitter and fancy makeup!

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Spring Has (Finally) Sprung!

At long last, there are definite signs that spring has finally arrived in Madison. A friend and I went downtown to the Farmer's Market - it was opening day - and also took a spin down State Street. There was a bustling if not huge crowd out and about. When we got to the halfway point from wehre we parked at my photo studio (viewer discretion is advised), we headed down St. for a bit of shopping and coffee as well as sight-seeing for our Arkansas-based friend. At the top of State on the Capitol lawn was the surest sign of spring:



Yep, laying in the grass basking in the sun! Ahh!

As we headed down the street, we realized it was "Busking For Books weekend too. It is an event designed to raise awareness of, and money for, adult illiteracy. There were bands or musicians on every corner...like all four corners of every intersection. At one point we found our friend Daithi (who had just run the Boston Marathon - yikes!) doing what he loves - making music.



It was good to see him there.

And finally, it would not be spring in Wisconsin (at least since the Wisconsin Uprising two years ago) without protesters at the Capitol. In this case the protest was about a Federal issus - drones - rather than state, but nevertheless, it was strangely comforting.



We will get more snow and icky weather before winter completely lets go, but it was wonderful to have a beautiful day with no real agenda and a friend with whom to share it. It felt really good.

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Teaser Day and Yard Work

Last weekend was a beauty of a spring weekend. Warm. Sunny. Of course that meant a bit of yard and garden work. Funny how that never really seems like a chore on the first such day. After I uncovered the patio furniture I even enjoyed a beer out in the yard. Ahhh!

Nala the cat was outside with us, finally getting a chance to really have full run of the yard. When I opened the shed to grab a shovel and greet the two motorcycles stored therein, Nala was immediately curious and had to check the place out. For some time she stood watch over the yard and the bikes.



The tiny pond I have in the back yard has a pump-powered waterfall, but since it freezes solid, I pull the pump for the winter. Consequently the pond becomes essentially a huge vat of maple leaf tea steeping for 4 months. It smells pretty fetid come spring. Getting it ready for spring is not really a pleasant task. I muck out a lot of the leaves with a rake, but since the water is still around 40 degrees (F), I do not drain it and thoroughly clean it. That comes later. For now I just scoop it, then install the pump and let it aerate. Gets a little whiffy for a while. Still, it is good to hear the splishing of the water.



The rest of this week has been rain, rain, rain, and dropping temperatures. Still, there is no escaping the inevitable bloom of spring. Finally!

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More Potpourri Because I Have Not Been Shooting Much

I have been out of pocket for a few months. Starting a (stressful) new job in January was a big part of it. I also co-directed, choreographed for, and danced in an aerial dance performance that ended last weekend. Add in a few photo shoots and you have a life pretty devoid of housework, tax preparation, or general leisure time. My camera has been more idle than any time in the past decade. Today's post is a bit of potpourri, no theme, just pics I enjoyed that never got shared. Enjoy!

First up is a funny/fun one of me at a wedding gig at which we performed. They had an '80's hair band playing, so we worked our costuming to play with that. I am certain this is the first time my hair has been back-combed!



Next is a fun shot of a local performer who was playing at a wedding I shot. He knew when the camera was around!



This third one was a fun vantage point of a handful of dancers. They did not know I was above, and I loved the swirling swing-influenced dance this couple was doing. They danced well, and well together. Fun!



And one last shot, this one of my lovely wife. She had been my helper at an event shoot that night and towards the end of a long day took some time out to enjoy the music. Ahh, love!



Hopefully now that my schedule has lightened up, I will have more time with my camera. And to the fans who are asking, yes, I will post new pics to my DeviantArt page too. If you are curious about that - it is generally work to racy to post at this blog - there is a link on the left sidebar of the eyeDance blog page.

Happy spring!

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Post-Show Panic

In the week following a show, it always seems like a week of almost-panic each evening. I have these phantom rehearsal urges where I find myself sitting still, perhaps on the couch, and all of a sudden I have a dreadful feeling that I should be at rehearsal. It is a bit unnerving for a few days. Fortunately (?) this week after the show, I still have a ton of work to do to get the budget numbers crunched and ready to present to the rest of the Collective next Monday. So, while I will miss rehearsing, I still have my head in the game. Here are a few more pics of having body in the game. Not me, of course, since I took these pics, but still enjoyable to share.



That one is a really nice shot of Ken and Luv on the "tipppy lyra". And here is another.



Here is another rather dramatic image from the first piece in the show, with a more conventionally hung lyra.



There are more to come, so check again!

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Much More

I don't think I have ever gone six weeks without a post. Life has been full. The new job was an intense level of stress, and is only now beginning to feel manageable. Add to that directing an aerial dance show that closed this weekend, with all the administrative, choreographic, and dance performance requirements, and you see why I might have been a bit too busy for casual photography and blogging. Life was reduced to the essentials: Work, rehearse, and sleep. Everything else became optional.

But now I have a few pics from our dress rehearsal last Thursday to share. I didn't take photos of all the pieces because I was in two, plus a transition dance, as well as being one of the go-to people for questions. The piece in these photos was one I choreographed but did not perform. It was a new experience for me to stand outside the work and shape it, but not dance it. It was challenging, and I learned that I have no particular talent for choreography. It is a skill I will simply have to learn. The dancers learned some really challenging material to make this piece work, and I thank them for it. The title of the piece was "Much More".

So as you look at this photo, imagine getting to this shape: Upside down, one foot below your head, a hand on the pole on either side of that leg, and the other leg out in split. It really boggles the mind.



Now imagine hanging on to a vertical pole that is rotating (it's suspended from the ceiling with a swivel), upside down and in splits, using nothing but your thigh and armpit. Got that? Now have another dancer standing on your legs, leaning back and giving a ta-da pose.



The raison d'être of the piece was to have the dancers moving back and forth between two close poles. A great idea, though one that requires a high degree of skill and strength. We got there, but it was a fight the whole time.



The piece came off well and the audience approved. That is all I can ask for. I am satisfied with my freshman effort at that choreographic experience.

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Warming the Bones - Physically and Metaphorically

Since early 2008 my employment has been less well defined than at any point since pre-college. I left a 19-year run with a company just before it did what it said it was not going to do (leave Madison). I opted then to open eyeDance Studio Photography (LINK - Not Safe For Work) and had a tenuous connection to income for the next three years as I built that business. In January of 2012 I stumbled into another day job, a contract ing, rent-to-own position doing software quality assurance for a company that closed its Madison office 8 months later. Three months later I chose a job that I think will be a good choice, though it too is a 3-month contract, try-before-you-buy and there is no guarantee of an actual job offer (though the outlook is favorable). Clearly the idea of permanent employment has gone the way of the dodo bird.



Living with intermittent income means minding the money much more carefully. We are in good shape financially, so there was never worry of missing a meal, but it did mean we pretty much ceased non-essential spending. No fun, new things. No new (or used) motorcycles came or went, magazine subscriptions were cancelled, books and movies came from the library instead of the bookstore or Blockbuster. No Netflix, no upgrades to the DSL line. Nothing non-essential.

Two weeks ago I said "Screw it!" and moved a half dozen ugly vendor-provided coffee cups out of the cupboard and went to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art's gift shop and bought what they sell as a tea service that I use for coffee. I loved the stark simplicity and the clean lines. It is from PO: Collection The set appears to be discontinued, but can be seen here. (LINK)

It felt pretty good to splurge a little bit. I have never been very promising as a monk, and moderation was killing me. It is true there are still no plans to go wild and spend a bunch of money, at least not until this job is "permanent", but this little treat has been a sign of a financial springtime. A little celebration of imagined security.

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Go Team Daffodil!

Back in mid-January I noticed, and commented on, a surprisingly early sprouting of the daffodils in my yard. The next day we got seven inches of snow, and it has been, well, wintery here ever since. We have had several more snowfalls and freezing rain. Today was one of those days were the temperature remained below freezing, but lots of insolation had the day feeling warmer than it was and warming up concrete and such. I wondered again about the daffys, so I grabbed my camera and went to take a look.



Yep, still there, raring to go!

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Steampunk Motorcycle

Yesterday I wrote a bit about the state of the art of custom motorcycle design. I was disparaging of builds that resulted in trailer queens; bikes that would never be ridden, or were so unlikely that riding would be problematic. At the peak of the Orange County Choppers madness, I would look in amazement/amusement at the used bike ads and see 1-2 year old custom built motorcycles with original build costs of $40,000 and up, languish at $12-15,000. There is little market for custom built bikes. They are too much a personal vision, either of the builder or the owner.

But sometimes the art is more than a radicalization or naked-woman art on the tank. On this bike, the builder wanted a functional bike that had aspects of the steampunk genre about it.



I think the builder did a fine job. The bike is hugely custom and yet I can easily imagine throwing a leg over it and going for a ride. I loved the effort to incorporate the oil filter in a highly visible and truly thematic way!



While the seat is probably not something you would want to ride on for 500 miles id does seem like something you could ride on for more than a run to the store for smokes.



And not a naked woman in sight on the bike. Though to be in keeping, any such woman would have needed to be represented in neo-Victorian garb anyway. Better to stick with base metals, eh?

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Motorcycles!

Reena and I went to the International Motorcycle Expo in Chicago this weekend with a couple of other riding buddies. It is a fun way to spend a day, even if it does mean 4-1/2 hours in the car to spend 4-5 hours at the expo. It is an opportunity to see all the new makes and models, and find all the gear you might be looking for (or wanting to investigate to buy locally) in one place. Among the things on display are custom bikes, generally not in a defined class, but representative of what is going on in the custom scene in general. For a decade or so it was all about cruisers, Harley-ish sorts of bikes all stretched and slammed and completely useless for actual riding. They reached such a point where I just called such trailer queens (never, ever going to be ridden) "butt jewelry". Those days faded along with Orange County Choppers (thankfully), and now the focus seems to have shifted to making sport bikes impractical.



Nothing like taking a brilliant motorcycle like a Suzuki GSXR-1000 and working hard to turn it into an ill-handling beast that is only interesting to ride in straight lines!

The other up-and-coming trend seems to be cafe racers, and that one I am happy about. At least with that sort of custom, the goal is all about form and function. It also frequently involves small displacement engines making the whole thing more affordable. Here are a couple of fun examples.



A venerable Yamaha SR500, sold here from 1978-1982:



I have some more, and will make a detailed post about someone's steam punk inspired build tomorrow.

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