On the lighter side...much lighter

The granddaughters love the whole bubble blowing thing and we must have had 10-15 variations, from the original single small circle on a stem to a battery powered bubble blowing guns. This weekend I found a new version for a buck. It is by far the best of the lot. It has a long plastic loop in a narrow tube of solution. It's the least messy and the most effective version to date. It inspired a try at photographically capturing the possibilities. The breeze was a little too much for great opportunities but the potential is there nonetheless. When I get some free time I will be doing a more controlled shoot in the studio. Art? Maybe. We'll see.

Can't let it be

So, I find more of the the Pulitzer. Maybe I should apply for a grant to fully expose the art of the art place.

Whacky Place

Here in Saint Louis we have a unique place for kids and adults to visit. It's called the City Museum and it was designed and built by artist and weird thinking people. My wife calls it, a law suit waiting to happen. The visuals are amazing and the exhibits are hands on and made of mostly recycled material. A big part of the attraction are the miles of what I would call, a human gerbil trail. It's made from a rebar like material and it wanders throughout, with some of it going for long stretches and as high as maybe 8 stories. I photographed this young man in one of the tamer parts. If you are ever in the city, it's well worth the visit.

Devastated

Once I found that I hadn't won the "blog" contest, I was totally demoralized and couldn't bring myself to post anymore. Not. Actually, I found myself totally engrossed in a new paper and printer combination that has changed my entire approach as to how I print my portraits. I had been caught in a black hole of angst trying to make the old combination print more consistently. I finally called an old cohort from Kodak who is now in a pivotal position with Epson and begged for help. It's not that I'm a total dolt when it comes to color management, I did speak it with some authority in a previous life but I couldn't nail this down. Nonetheless he told me to go straight to the new Exhibition Fibre paper and rest assured my problems would be all but solved. I hate to admit it but he pretty much nailed it. I'm rambling again. During that time my blog suffered from the lack of any new production, so, after several calls from friends who insisted that I return to my post and with a renewed sense of drive, I went back to the Pulitzer Museum, which is right behind my studio and I worked the geometric shapes that grab me every time I shoot around there. Something has gotten into my psyche, much like the Ice Carvings, I'm drawn, more and more, to the abstracts.

Jeigh Today

It seems so long ago that I first met this man. We were introduced because, at the time, I was shooting a lot of fashion and he was the head of the Fashion Department at Washington University, here in Saint Louis. For several years after, I sat on the jury for the Fashion Department's final show of the school year. There were several designers from those classes that made a significant name for themselves in the business. I don't remember how we parted but I hadn't seen Jeigh for some time but when I did, I knew he was meant for the portfolio. I was thrilled that he was willing to sit for me and the funny thing is, he seemed more thrilled that I had asked. Go Figure.

Red Trees and a speeding ticket

Back in the prime fall days of 08, I knew the maples in front of our world famous Art Museum would be spectacular. So I planned that photo adventure to take place while the sun was still on the front of the building. Math isn't my strong suite but after a little thought and research I calculated that the window of opportunity would be just past 8am and not lasting much longer. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. I was asked to stop my car by one of the local gendarmes. Seems as though I was going 41 miles per hour.
Hmm, no one in the park at that time except me and the police car. 41 miles per hour?? Arriving just a bit late, it was, as I expected, fabulous. I did indeed shoot many HDR's that day and they are amazing.

Really Cool Stuff

A few weeks ago a really good friend invited us out to Saint Charles, Missouri to see the "Fete de Ice" (or something like that). Her brother and nephew were competing there and have the art pretty well mastered. Of course I had to bring along the new Camera to give her a test drive. Ice, in case you didn't know, can be very difficult to shoot. I think the success here was not to capture the shape of the sculptures but the beautiful abstracts that present themselves when you can see through them. The clear, yet distorted, color and shapes comes through in the clearest parts of the ice. This first image is more of an visual demonstration of just that. You can see people behind the ice but what is most interesting is the color of the coats and scarves coming through. What follows is a series of abstracts that exemplify what I really loved about shooting that day. They look like very well crafted oil or watercolor paintings.

In the first image below the copy, you can make out the ice carver through the ice itself. After that, the coats and scarves of the art followers make-up the color content contained within.

Note: It saddens me that images posted here are very disappointing when compared to the originals. It must have been a bad day at Google/Blogger, because I edited and re-edited these images trying to compensate for the lackluster portrayal posted herein. I'll leave them posted for now or until I wake up in the middle of the night knowing this might somehow diminish what this blog, has to date, represented. At which point, I'll pull them off.

Karsh_Harsh

There have been several people to compare my portrait work with that of Yousef Karsh and I am greatly flattered. Recently I had to edit through a host of other images and I came upon this of my old friend, Marcel. In my usual A.D.D. manor, I got lost in his image and forgot the original intent of my search. Cropping so closely into the chiseled old face of this Master seemed a bit harsh, but it's oh so dramatic. Now I find myself feeling a little guilty because I haven't been to visit Marcel of late and I'm sure he could use some company. Maybe this is the motivation I need.

Watizit?

Last year when we went to visit friends in Florida, we were walking on the beach and came upon this vibrant yet mysterious object, creature, sculpture or artifact. I had no idea
what we were looking at. It's color was stunning, especially in comparison to most things that wash up on shore. I sent the image to a host of knowing friends and none were able to identify it until at last a young student at the local Juniorversity pegged it as a Portuguese Man O' War. It looked almost like a glass sculpture and I would have never guessed just how dangerous it could be.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Man_o'_War

It's so true

Lengthy parable worth reading.A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning.. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.



Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on to meet his schedule.



A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.



A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again.. Clearly he was late for work.



The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.



In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.



No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.



Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats averaged $100.



This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people.
The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour:
Do we perceive beauty?
Do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?


One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Kelsea for real

Some viewer who know Kelsea loved the portrait but thought it misleading as to how one might normally think of her. Well, here she is the cute little 6 year old that she is.

Bloodline

The daughter of my oldest son, Kelsea, came with me to the studio on New Years Eve day. I had some organizing to do and she was anxious to tag along. When my kids were younger they were the perfect little photographer's children. They would spend hours letting me pose and photograph them, so patient with their dad and all his lighting experiments. Kelsea on the other hand had not been so inclined, until very recently. She was ready now and it was a great experience to see her open up a bit. Frankly though, I think being on the other side of the camera was more to her liking. Unfortunatley she didn't have much to work with since I was the only subject available. We took turns until I could pose no more. Maybe someday I'll post the shots she took. I have to say she is very intuitive when it comes to shooting using the big studio camera. I plan to engourage her even more as she grows older. Who knows maybe someday my input will provide her with some success of her own.

Farewell

---James Joseph Corbett Jr. ----
October 31, 1943-December 15, 2008

WOW

So, I'm sitting in my usual seat here at Nadoz Euro Deli and I see this incredible woman a couple of tables away. Holy mackerel, I think, she must be somebody very important. Well, she is. Marjorie Hoeltzel is an artist and wonderfully vibrant person. Soon to be 88 years of age, she makes me feel like a sissy when it comes to clarity and youthfulness. Much like the "General" from an earlier post, she is a serious portrait photographers dream. Thank you Marjorie for allowing me to show off a little bit._______I've added Marjorie's choice (top) soon to be hanging in a prominent place in the family archives.

The Beginning of the End

I suspect maybe I need to move on from this sisters thing but I would be wholly negligent if I didn't post how this project really started. I guess it may have 25 or so years ago when this shot was done. This beauty is the mother of the sisters. As I recall it was done as a wedding present for the bride and groom. There was a series, the rest of which I haven't come across of late. I guess there is something to be said for good genes.

Sisters Together

With nothing more to add other than those red dresses should say "Thank you", for they have found the perfect home.

Back Again and More Beautiful Than Ever

Many post back you may remember my contemporary Mona Lisa, titled "Sister Act". And even further back a post entitled "Red Gown". This year it's Erin's turn at the red gown and what a lovely photograph she makes. I'd like to make a living doing regular glamour portraits of this family. Part of the test of this image was to keep the look similar to the shot I did a year ago, that of her sister, Jordan. There's still some tweaking to do on that front but I really believe the content itself is extremely worthwhile. In an effort to help visualize this lovely, I've added a closer version. So many times I won't post an image because the size limitation of the blog keeps the impact to a minimum. As in this case, the original has the overall feel of the composition but starves for the lack of detail in her innocence.

The Rise and Fall of Autumn

I wanted to get away from the whole autumn theme but I keep finding marginally interesting tidbits. This is the Statue of Saint Louis located just in front of the Art Museum in our beautiful Forrest Park. I went to shoot the tree rows of these brilliantly red Sugar Maples and came back with hundreds of shots and one tourista image of the statue.

Surrender

She gave it all she had but this lonely little Rudbeckia finally succumbed to the frost and the chill of the coming winter. The remnants of a flourishing wildflower patch, this little gal held out way beyond the Black Eyed Susans that had surrounded her for the summer.

Good intentions

I really wanted to focus on this project, scanning the amazing Ginko leaves, but one of those silly little distractions (real work) came along and spoiled that. Maybe next year.