Ho ho ho

I've been posting a lot of archive shots lately for two reasons. First, I enjoy being a tourist through my own work – it's interesting which shots I liked back then and which ones I like now. Sure, my past and present preferences overlap, but not always. The difference, I think, is that I'm not as biased now by my original vision, and whether or not that vision was achieved, than on day I took the shot. So, I'm seeing the photo in a different light. My second reason for mining the archives is, I fear, that I've been lazy. There isn't much new material to draw from because I haven't taken the time to shoot.  Worse, I've been drooling over new photography gear during my turn at sloth. 

Let's not be that guy shall we?

The spray of color above is from a mistake. I bumped my tripod while taking pictures of Christmas lights back in December. The effect was interesting enough though to try to recreate it. Of course, none of my deliberate attempts turned out as well. 

Cutthroat

Anyone who follows my online dealings would notice I have an absurdist streak. It flares up when I'm at my most nihilistic because I'm frustrated over something – which, with my current career track and lackluster resume, happens frequently. To relieve stress, I try to make myself laugh with visual and verbal non sequitors. Not everyone gets it – actually, a surprising number of people take me at face value – but that's fine by me, others' reactions become part of the joke.

That said, while I haven't yet found the voice for this blog I don't want it to always be the joke that only a narrow audience gets. So, enough already with the niece gifs. Today's post is more sincere, it's simply an image I rather liked. The photo is a shallow-depth-of-field shot of Eugene Field's cutthroat razor. It can be found in his field house museum in downtown St. Louis. 

Just Because 2

Well, so I was thinking the only way to get better at this photography thing was to push my comfort zone both creatively and technically. To really challenge myself, I looked through my sister's  Facebook page, the sister that is the most tolerant of this kind of thing, and started downloading pictures of meals that I thought looked good to eat. I then decided to put my niece dancing in her Motorhead T-shirt (not Photoshopped) on top of the food.  

It was a lot of effort but I believe you will agree this is one of my most important pieces.*

*Now that I've watched this a few times I realize I forgot a series with her Chicago Hot Dog Salad dish. She forgot the celery salt and sport peppers on that salad though so I don't think it really counted.

Catching Up

I just noticed that the blog has just reached as many unique page views as its parent blog, A Day in St. Louis. It has only taken me four times as long to reach that number since changing the name to Pluck and Lights.  I'm fine with that, I've also noticed I get much fewer non-human visitors. So, this blog gets fewer numbers but more people.

Today's photo is another archive shot. This was taken in Chicago's China town when I visited the city for a job fair about a year ago. The job fair, unfortunately, didn't go anywhere but I wasn't trying very hard. It seemed that everyone was wearing a suit and tie except for me. While I didn't dress like a slob, I didn't see the point in getting all starched up to walk around booths to collect corporate swag.  Also, I despise corporate swag -- so what was I doing there exactly? Well, to network presumably, but I didn't meet anyone I was much interested in talking to. So, after ducking out of the fair early I went to China Town in search of one my favorite dishes, Sichuan pork intestines. Unfortunately, the Chinese bistro I went to didn't have that so I settled for a cumin lamb stir fry instead. It wasn't spectacular, but it was certainly better than being over dressed and eating fast food at the convention center. 

Just Because

Apparently my niece walks now. This video was shot of her at an Easter egg hunt a week ago. I have no idea why her parents thought Devil horns were appropriate for an Easter egg hunt -- they do listen to that punk-rock music though.

Oooo, Dr. Waldman can make a stoopid animation!

Nude

I asked Katie a few weeks ago if I could join a nude-model photography group. Her response was "Nudie pics!" which I assumed meant consent. My rationale was I thought it would be an interesting way to learn portraiture. After putting my application in and being accepted to the group, however, I realized many of the events seemed to be more about the nudity than the photography. To each their own, but that's not my bag, so withdrew my membership. 

But speaking of nudity this nude bronze, titled "Emma," is a favorite of mine. Perhaps because it's a nude bronze next to a parking lot -- context is everything here. I first encountered it, fittingly enough, while riding in the Naked Bike Ride last year. I didn't, ahem, participate fully in that ride but the event is for promoting cyclist visibility, and I'm a cyclist that likes to be visible, so I wanted to support it.

Unfortunately, I don't recall the artist's name -- and after spending 15-fruitless minutes searching combinations of Emma-bathing-nude-and-St. Louis on the web I'm fine not crediting the work for now. 

Eades Bridge

I was looking through my archives and came across this photo. I took this one last year on the Fourth of July off the Eades Bridge looking down at the crowd exiting the Arch grounds after the fireworks display. I was taking long exposure shots to try to capture the kinetic feel of the crowd. Perhaps, in this case, the exposure was a bit too long since the crowds are mostly obscured by blur, but I liked angle and scale and the relatively immobile couple embracing in this scene. There are things I'd change about my technique this year but at the time I thought I had done good and proudly posted this photo on Facebook. Of course, no one besides Katie posted positive feedback on it. I have since learned that Facebook is strictly for pictures of your dog and lunch...