Just Go With It

My "about me" section mentions a lovely wife and two beastly cats. One puts up with me and indulges my desire to waste her makeup and make her do silly things in front the camera. The other, in this instance, has his own burning desire to leap at every background, knock over every light stand, and chew through every cord I'm foolish enough to leave exposed. One or both inevitably come into my office/library/gym/spare bedroom/photography equipment storage closet/mini "studio" (i.e. this room has a lot of my crap in it) to check out what I'm getting into.

The point of this photo set was to accompany something I've since decided to postpone writing about, so it started out less one feline. Sometimes, you just don't know what's going to happen after you begin. Things get going with a particular idea in mind, brainstorming is done, curveballs are thrown, you adapt and accommodate the moment. If you're lucky, that curveball will happen to have stripes that go nicely with the face paint your model is wearing.

Warning: Photographic Metaphor Ahead

A large amount of thought wasn't put into this whole blog thing before I created it yesterday. I wanted an outlet for my photography as well as other thoughts and Google makes it pretty darn easy to create one. Seriously, in about ten minutes you can create, design, and publish your first blog post about 3rd century cuisine or your badminton league.

It's so easy and early in the process that I've been reticent to even share it with others during its first 30 hours of existence because frankly, I don't know if I have the attention span to deliver something of quality on a routine basis. I can't help but think of a book on marathon training I once read that said you should tell everybody you know that you're training for a marathon. In doing that, you've somewhat made a commitment to follow through, or otherwise face looking like a dirty lying failure. Point being - if you really want to do it, tell people you're going to do it. (Please ignore the fact that I never did run a marathon, the idea is still sound.)

Now that Photo Steevo exists, even with a non-existent readership, I suddenly feel an obligation to add to it. But what do I add?!? This is where the titular warning comes into play. In the last day or so I've already compiled a list of twenty-ish things that I'd like to scribble about. Part of the point of this blog being about my picture taking habit, I've already sketched out several plans for shots that I think would be illustrative of some of the ideas. I'm excited. I've got a crowd of aimless and unfocused ideas. Maybe the blog is just the cop on the motorbike that I needed to drive them in a common direction.

Hello World

This afternoon I realized I was doing the world a great disservice by not exposing it to my extended ruminations on life's details, as well as the photographic adventures that are taking up an increasing amount of my time. How dare I be so selfish? To continue keeping so much from so many would be a crime.

OK, self-mockery aside, I simply felt that I was ready to try something different in the approach to my online persona. Facebook friends and acquaintances have made up the audience to an increasing number of my posted photographs. At times I want the picture to speak for itself, in which case a simple upload to FB might be adequate. Sometimes the point of the picture is to provide emotive substance to the ineffable, so if I do it right, I shouldn't need to say anything. But what about the times when I want to say something else?

When I want to use a photograph to accompany writing, or writing to add depth to a photograph, that's the basic purpose I envision for this blog. Beneath that, the hope is that I'll feel compelled to be more consistent with writing and with giving myself photographic assignments. Deeper still, this can serve as an avenue for me to unload the eclectic mix of crap that seems to circulate through my brain. Hell, if anybody actually ends up reading this, maybe I'll get to hear some other points of view.

Closing notes about the image - I like playing with lighting equipment and I'd like more opportunities to do so with subjects other than myself. Believe it or not, self portraits can be a challenge. I have a limited idea of where the light and shadows are going to fall when I hit the button, so it can be a lot of trial and error. Most of the time I end up with what you'd expect from me as a pallid, non-model; a look that says either says "I'm thinking deeply" or "Is this thing on?"