Mazeau Tableau

DSC_0277, originally uploaded by nataraj_hauser / eyeDance.

Another photo from the Mazopalooza weekend. I really liked this shot: The low light, the pumped up colors (not post-camera), and the funky tableau of the performers. For me there's an element of technical reward with this shot. The shutter speed was 1/20th of a second (F/1.8) and the camera hand-held. That's a tough shot to make. I seemed to get pretty lucky that night. I took nearly 300 photos, mostly in low light, and I got about 45 that were pretty good. I'll take those odds!

When I started this blog I thought I was going to be doing primarily dancer shots. It started that way. Since then I've found myself looking at other things with interest and now am wondering to myself if I want to have the dilution to a more generic photo blog, or keep it more true to its intended (but not immutable) root. I'm sort of enjoying the process of wandering around, subject wise, and I'm not the sort to beat myself up for changing my plan. It's not for want of dancer material. My life is filled with beautiful dancers these days.

Unexpected joy!
The click of the shutter yields
space between moments.

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Winter Snow

We drove to St. Paul, MN, this weekend for a party to plan a party. The party being planned is a bigevent: 2.5 days and about 75 people, 13+ half barrels of bier, lotsa music and dancing, and 4 square meals served per day. Since I volunteered (read: was volunteered) to be the Grand Poobah, it falls to me to sort out the details, generally by having other people do the work. So, a planning session for all MY volunteers was called for. That meant a half barrel of bier, food, music and dancing. So, the meeting happened and we drained the keg.

On the way home we pulled off to take a few photos of the stunning scenery. The snow made the drive up on Saturday really dicey, though the roads were in fine condition today.



The trees were all laden with snow, and the boundaries between field and woods were all pretty dramatic.



We were near Wisconsin Dells, so the woods were laced with outcroppings of rock. This one stood out because the rock had such a warm coloration to it: It simply drew the eye.



Nearby, after wading through knee-deep snow and scrabbling up a hill, and clawing through some dense brush, I found this southern exposure overhang with icicles already forming. Slithering up under and behind, I captured this one:



And to round out a nice experience, we arrived home safely.

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Hildy on the lyra

Hildy on the lyra, originally uploaded by nataraj_hauser / eyeDance.

Another shot of the aerial dance work I'm involved with. This one has the dancer upside down and spinning on a lyra. It's essentially a large steel hoop suspended from the gymnasium ceiling by a single rope. This allows the lyra to spin as well as move in a wide circle. This shot conveys a bit of the disorientation and distress the dancer undergoes while learning to dance in the air.

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Laura on a lyra

Laura on a lyra, originally uploaded by nataraj_hauser / eyeDance.

For the past few weeks I have been getting familiar with working on a new batch of aerial dance equipment, all made of steel. It is harder on the body than the more familiar trapeze, and harder to feel at ease upon. For now, we're in a period of sampling the various apparatus; ladders (both horizontal and vertical), rings, lyra, and poles. All are hung from the ceiling on a single point rig (a kids swing would be an example of a double point rig). The class is amazing fun, and the people are a truly fantastic bunch to work with. In this photo Laura is trying some moves on the lyra which is basically a steel hoop. This one has padding taped on for comfort.

We'll be doing a performance in March or April. Interested?

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Mazopalooza!

Mazopalooza!, originally uploaded by nataraj_hauser / eyeDance.

I've had quite enough of the cold winter pictures. Time for a little hot dancing! Here is a sweet shot of Hildy and Mars at the improv performance "Some Assembly Required" at the Mazopalooza contact improv event in Mazomanie, WI.

The rest of the weekend was a fantastic day-and-three-quarters of contact improv(isational) dance with about 30 others from four states. It was physically and socially satisfying. I had a dance this morning that ranks right up there in my Top-5 dances of all time: It was sublime.

Then, after driving home in the dense fog, I went to a 2-hour aerial dance class where we were training on steel apparatus. Tonight it was rings, both small (about 12" in diameter) and large (about the size of a hula hoop). All were hung from a gymnasium ceiling on a single point rig. That too was a blast. And now I think I'll have a martini! I'm tuckered out.

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Wintery hike

On our way home from lunch and errands with Reena's mother, we needed a hike to clear our heads. Our route took us past the Edna Taylor Conservancy, so we zipped up and stomped off into the snow. There were few people about, and we had less than an hour of light remaining, so we had to enjoy what was available. We've had a lot of snow this month, nearing a record, so everything was draped in a fresh coat of the white stuff.



I really like this image, even if everything is pointing to the right! The oaks spread right over the path we were on and it really was a supurb bit of scenery. When Reena came around the corner to where I had just taken this photo, she let out a little gasp and uuup! came her camera.



As our light was fading we were caught in the transition between woods and marsh. When I took this photo I had not only a sense of place, but a greater sense of transition. There were several demarcations at that moment: marsh-forest, day-night, fall-winter, life-death. I could have lingered longer there...

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December Hoar

Finally, I found the hoar I've been looking for! After a whole bunch of mornings with trees coated in rime, yesterday I was rewarded with a find of hoar frost. The effect was pretty localized, just in the area between Madison and Sun Prairie. I didn't see any on my east side commute, nor was there any once I reached Sun Prairie. I guess that low lying area had just the right conditions.


And a bit more view...


I really considered finding this frost to be a treat. Something about it just makes me grin. The title is linked to a Wiki page describing different types of frost.

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Christmas Cactus

Christmas Cactus, originally uploaded by nataraj_hauser.

I have a slip of the 85+ year old christmas cactus my mom had. It seldom blooms. My sister in law has several cuttings off that same plant, as well as a couple other plants, and hers thrive. They were in riotous bloom today. She says she simply ignores the conventional wisdom and leaves them to bake in the full sun. The reduced light of the WI winter does the rest. I guess I'll try something new with mine. In the meantime, I'll enjoy this bloom.

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going nowhere (lost)

going nowhere, originally uploaded by nataraj_hauser.

We have had several days of fog as the temp rises to around freezing and the snow starts to melt. I took this photo on my way to work, between Madison and Sun Prairie. I am a bit embarrassed to mention that with the fog I got a bit lost en route so I don't exactly know where "here" is. Not that it mattered; every road looked like this with 1/10 mile visibility and short sight lines. I had chosen this back road route because I wanted a picture of an old white church in the fog. I probably drove right past the dang thing without seeing it! There are a couple more of this 'fog' series on my Flickr site. You can get there by clicking on this image, or by following the link under "Links To My World" at the left of this page.

UPDATE: Here's the same road a couple of weeks later on a sunny day.

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Rime and Reason

Rime and Reason, originally uploaded by nataraj_hauser.

Yesterday was another one of those mornings in Wisconsin where the early morning air is really damp and the temperature plunges just before sunrise. The result is a coating of rime frost that's like a thick fuzz on all the trees. It's truly beautiful, and by 10:00 AM it's all gone.

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Laughin' in a Winter Wonderland

Laughin' in a Winter Wonderland, originally uploaded by nataraj_hauser.

One of my traditions for this time of year is to go clomping around in the snow with my sister and her Jewish pal to chop down a tree: a Christmas tree in her case, and a Solstice tree for Pagan me(*). This year we have about a foot of snow on the ground and a veneer of ice somewhere around the 4-inch depth. It made for some pretty humorous clomping. Here my sister and her friend had been hauling her tree, singing snippets of Christmas carols, and tripping over sawed off stumps and other concealed terrain features. At this moment, the singing was replaced by belly laughs. A great day!

(* It sounds like a start of a joke doesn't it? "A Christian, a Jew, and a Pagan are walking through a forest..." Heh!)

I've receive three or four emails from people who want to know the punchline to my protojoke. I don't have one, but I'm having fun pondering it. What the line does make me think of though, is this Tom the Dancing Bug "God-Man" cartoon. It's so sadly true, yet I can't help but to remind myself that there I was, the Pagan part of the joke, "and no one was wasting no one." (Bonus points if you can identify what movie that quote is from.)

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Checking In

Our kitty, Captain Hook, is getting to be a pretty geriatric cat and has some health issues that are taking their toll. We had a day recently where we wondered if it "was time". We want his life to still have reasonable quality without undue suffering. That night, he was hunkered down in the bathroom - not at all a routine place for him - and looking a bit less bright-eyed than usual. I decided to lay down with him and see how he was doing. Reena captured the moment.





After a bit of heart-to-heart and nose-to-nose, we decided he was just having a bad day and that he still had some juice in him. He was right, and with some help on our part has bounced back somewhat. His end-of-days period continues a bit longer.

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Icy Bug

Icy Bug, originally uploaded by nataraj_hauser.

We don't just get snow here in southern Wisconsin. No siree. Sometimes we get a quarter inch of ICE, then snow. Makes cleaning off your car before work a bit time consuming. You get an idea of just how thick the ice is here, not only on the windshield, but even on the car itself. The slight yellow blur in the windshield is the fake flower I keep in the built in bud vase during the winter.

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