Israeli Photos

Finally got around to uploading some Israel stuff into Flickr. Have a look, why don't you? I gotta go do some exegesis now. Good bye!

The Plastic Eye

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So I got a new lens for my camera. Yeah, I'm a sucker for camera gear. This one's a little different, though. No fancy extra-dispersion aspherical ground glass elements in various groups for this lens. Nope -- pure plastic.

My interest in the Holga was piqued by a few articles I read on the interweb. For the uninitiated, the Holga is an all-plastic toy film camera. It has one shutter speed, one aperture setting, leaks light into its body, and has a junko plastic lens. As a consequence, when compared to photos taken from a "real" camera, the pics from a Holga.. er.. don't look quite right. Which is what we're going for here.

I actually considered picking up a real live Holga, but I really didn't want to deal with film. It's medium format, which would have been interesting to get into, but still -- film. So I did the next best thing: I paid a guy to hack the lens off a Holga and mount it onto a Nikon body cap. So now I can mount it onto my SLR. Sweet, sweet digital goodness.

I was not very enamored by some of my initial experiences with the lens, though. I spent a good amount of time going over every crevice of the thing to get rid of all the plastic shaving bits. Not a very delightful task. And the first few shots I grabbed with it were -- how shall we say -- not inspiring. But I got a few interesting exposures. And after a while, I started to get used to the quirkiness of this particular lens.

The Holga definitely forces you to approach photography differently. It sort of makes you look at the world a little cockeyed, from different angles, trying to find something that would hold interest before sending it through the distorted plastic. The photo above is one of the better examples of its results.

One thing I don't like about Flickr is that they seem to boost contrast and saturation a bit after you upload photos. The above picture was less contrasty than it appears now, and a bit more flat and dull in terms of color. Usually I wouldn't complain, but in this case, it really does take away from some of the eerie, washed-out feel I'd seen before uploading. Oh well. You get what you can from free services.

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Artsy? Funky? Weird? I don't know. Whatever it is, I think it's right up my alley.

Clearer Skies

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One thing I noticed, during my brief visit to Europe, was the clouds. There's just something about the clouds in Europe -- as if they had more depth and character and vibrancy.


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By way of comparison, I'm not quite sure how one would describe the skies in Los Angeles without using the words "brown" or "gunk."

Just an observation.

Glad I'm Not a Writer

... wait a minute...

Lagging

It's about 10:45 a.m. Paris time right now, and here I am, back in L.A., unable to sleep. So I'm up transferring photos. Only about 300 more to go now, out of some 1,200 pictures. I really need USB 2.0. I'll try posting some photos when I get a chance.

Illumination

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Your testimonies are wonderful;
Therefore my soul keeps them.
The unfolding of your words gives light;
It imparts understanding
To the simple.

I opened my mouth, and panted:
For I longed for thy commandments.
Look upon me,
Be merciful unto me,
And show me favor,
As is Your way to those
Who love Your name.

Direct my steps by Your word,
And let no iniquity
Have dominion over me.
Redeem me from man’s oppression,
That I may keep your precepts.
Make your face shine upon your servant
And teach me your decrees.

Streams of water run down my eyes,
Because men do not keep Your law
[They hear it not,
Nor receive it,
love it,
or obey it].
-Ps. 119:129-136, various translations

(My apologies for the gratuitous number of pictures of myself on this blog. I think it's gratuitous. But I can't afford models for my pictures. I'm sorry.)

Dying Flowers

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So I was editing this photo on my computer, when my mom walked by and caught a glimpse of the screen. And she asked, "What's that?"

"Flowers. I took a picture of them using the flash."

"What? You mean those dried up old flowers that were sitting in the living room?"

"Yeah."

"Wow. Even dried up old flowers can look nice."

I thought that was an interesting comment. Just the idea that there can be beauty in something that's otherwise unattractive intrigues me at times. Of course, with a vase full of flowers, you don't really have to stretch to find that beauty. I mean, come on, they're flowers. But even in the downright ugly -- the streets and the slums and the empty cookie bags sitting on a desk that no one seems to appreciate -- I think there's always a strange sense that, maybe if you look at it from a different angle, there might be a glimmer of something beautiful.

So whenever life hands you a lemon, light it from different angles and take a picture of it.

As for the picture itself, I was fooling around with this light-painting technique I read about on Strobist. Camera was on a tripod in a pitch dark room; the flash was hand-held and fired via its "Test" button. The shutter was held open as long as it could manage (30 seconds), and the light was fired off at various angles around the vase. I have to admit, I cheated a bit here. The flash beam wasn't as tightly controlled as it should have been, so some light spilled over onto the walls and my stuffed-animal Ninja Turtle. So I brought down the ambient light in Photoshop to get it solid black.

You can try it yourself at home. All you need is a camera that lets you adjust shutter speed and a light source (flashlight, strobe, whatever).

Santa Monica

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Have you ever heard that song "Santa Monica" by Savage Garden? It's a charming little song, about feeling out of place in a world of false appearances. It's also about prank calling your friends and pretending that you're Norman Mailer over the phone, which seems a bit odd to me.

Anyway, this was shot at the Santa Monica Pier. This guy on the guitar was actually quite good, and I thought his voice sounded a bit like Phil Collins. I think Kim got a video of him playing "Tiny Dancer." But then, later on, we saw this other guy on the Promenade singing the exact same song! What's the deal with that? Do these people share playlists or something? Is there an academy for this sort of thing? And this guy here is playing on a Martin! Why am I giving you money, sir? But then again, I did take his picture without permission, so who am I to judge, neh? And like I said, he was pretty good at what he did.

Still trying to get the hang of post-processing in black & white. But it's okay, 'cause it's digital. And man, I dig-it-all! (I'm sorry, I stole that from Strong Bad. You can blame him.)