Anyone seen the print directory for Contact yet?

Has anyone seen the print directory magazine for the 2009 Contact Photography Festival yet? I am sure I picked it up in Chapters in February or early March last year, and its no where to be found yet. I'd like to plan a trip to Toronto and given the show starts May 1st, its getting closer and closer.

The official site has not launched yet with any of the '09 information aside from whats in the press release, but there will be 210 venues with over 1000 photographers participating. It's the biggest photography festival in the world and only two hours away. :)

Get back to me if you have seen any in print.

Mike

Mike Wood Photography

Practicum Class Exhibition Opening

I was on the UWO campus last night and came across the opening reception for the "Practicum Class Exhibition" in the gallery of the John Labatt Visual Art Centre on campus. An interesting mixed media display of textiles, slide shows, paintings and interactive displays - like a floor of belts all interwoven. That in of itself must have taken days to construct.

Was pretty random coming across this event as I had no idea it was on. But the Perrier and the spicy hot hummus dip were quite good. :)

the show runs till April 9th, 2009.

Mike

Mike Wood Photography

Photo special for UWO students only

I am offering an on-campus photo shoot and 2 finished prints for only $40.00.

From now till the end of April, I am offering a special package for UWO students only: An on-campus photo session for the very special low price of $40.00. My usual artistic portrait/fashion photos start at $65.00 and go up from there! This is a great deal!

Forget the posed in-studio photo like everyone else - with a fake background and borrowed cap and gown. Instead, get a professionally composed on-campus portrait shot amongst some of UWO's great architecture and in a location that means something to you: the campus entrance, the Weldon Library, UC tower, Ivey, or outside your Hall, College or Faculty building? Maybe even in your own purple and white.

Package includes up to 30 minutes of photography, no limit on shots taken in that timeframe, with your choice of two professionally edited, composed and printed black and white or colour 8x10in images for $40.00.

At this busy time, as the school year draws to a close, it is easy to pass over an opportunity like this, but it will be a great year end souvenir of your time at Western.

Mom and Dad will love it!
Grandma will love it!
You’ll love it!

For more info on this Special Offer, or to book now, email:
mikewoodphoto [at] gmail [dot] com

Available spots are filling up fast!

Mike

Mike Wood Photography

Meetings and projects

Had a good meeting today regarding my upcoming exhibition in May, and also made some headway with two of the three other projects on the go. So far so good. I am hoping they will turn into something half way lucrative. Still not sure on one project but we will see if I can handle that later in the month. I have to prep for an interview tomorrow.

Thanks to Morgan, Jesse, John, Jordan, Bernie, Luke n Steph, and Mallory for helping me out on several angles.


Mike

Mike Wood Photography

WTD noodz cartoon

Made me laugh. I guess it's all in the delivery and context. :)

-- From What the Duck?


Mike

Mike Wood Photography

Violet Hall

Violet Hall, 2009

Violet Hall #2, 2009

Diamond Clips, 2009

Violet Hall #4 , 2009

Violet Hall # 3, 2009

Images of the versatile Violet shot in the hall of her apartment. With the exception of Diamond Clips, 2009 the only lighting was light coming through the doorway in front of her, and some negligible low ambient light in the hall. I think these images gave off a distinct retro feel. Violet also made the dress and had not, to that point, been photographed in it.

Quiet Contemplation, 2009

Mike

Mike Wood Photography

Happy St. Paddy's Day

A St. Paddy's Triptych

Pixxie mentioned yesterday she wanted to do a St. Patrick's day shoot. As it was actually sunny outside and relatively warm this afternoon, we shot for an hour in a wooded area. Not high art, but it was fun to do and she is always great to work with.

I liked the contrast of her non typical Irish look, the piercings, the pendant, and the "Kiss Me I'm Irish" and "Green is Good" buttons, and of course the Dollar store shamrock chapeau. :)

Mike

Mike Wood Photography

Om

"Om Mani Pedme Hung" in the Sanskrit

So earlier in the week, a few days before myself and two others were let go due to the lack of work for us to do– but after being told I was done, I was by myself in a section of the warehouse doing some pricing on hundreds of figurines of various types. The day before had been quite stressful as I was coming to grips that I wasn’t going to be there and yet almost everyone else was, despite lets say some differences in performance and attitude and such between myself and some of those who remained.

Anyways. I decided, actually scratch that. I didn’t decide. I just started to recite or chant quietly under my breath the Six Syllable Buddhist mantra “Om Mani Pedme Hung” now and then. Then I started to do that as I repackaged each figurine. Essentially using the figurines like the prayer or rosary beads to count. I think I probably said it over three or four hundred times during the course of the week by myself. The day doing it, I also worked most of the day solo - and felt I was suffering from laid off leprosy as no one was really talking to me or acknowledging me to a great extent. But this day I was glad to have the solitude and time to reflect in quiet contemplation. I told my friend Ryn that I thought I could be a Buddhist Monk after all that time alone as it didn't bother me at all. ;)

I found it calming to recite the mantra. It took my mind off my impending lack of employment and all that would mean. And then sitting in my car having lunch, I was reading a bit of Lama Surya Das’ 1997 book “Awakening the Buddha Within.” I looked up the mantra as I knew I had seen it referenced in there somewhere.

Lama Das translates the chant as “The jewel is in the lotus.” What it means, to paraphrase Lama Das, is that wisdom and compassion - the jewels that we all seek – are inherently within all of us like seeds blossoming and unfolding within our hearts. What we seek, we are. Lisa T. commented on my note on Facebook last week with the horoscope and how it seemed Buddhist. I guess that it did and it got me leaning back that way.

Lama Das goes on to say that you can translate mantras literally, but that they are chanted more for their conceptual energy vibrations than for their actual meaning. Like a deep gong, you feel it in your abdomen. Mantras have that same effect. The outer vibrations are sounds (obviously), and the inner vibrations are directed energy, attention and thought. In this mantra, Om is the universal sound. Mani means jewel, and Pedme means lotus. Together they mean 'the jewel is in the lotus'. Hung is the consort sound to Om and has no meaning but is for the completion of the vibrational tone. If you have ever been lucky enough to go to Tibet, you would hear this chant everywhere. Maybe you have seen it on TV on Discovery, OLN, or the Travel channel.

The mantra works for me. Really. As Lama Das says in his book. ‘Use it to soften, to ease and gentle your mind, energy and spirit. Use it to dissolve any hardness or constriction around your heart, to warm up and loosen your guy. Chant it again and again… Sense where you are, what you are, and who you are and can be. Let everything dissolve into that purring stream, that song repetitive sound of Great Compassion’s mantra: Om Mani Pedme Hung.

He wrote in the book that one of his teachers, Kalu Rinpoche, when visiting Boston in the 1970s went to the giant multi-story fish tank at the Aquarium at Boston Harbor. Kalu Rinpoche spent the afternoon tapping on the glass and getting the attention of the fish that swam by and blessed them with this Great Compassion Mantra. He was also know to bless a box of sand each morning when back home before spreading it on the hillside - with the intent that each grain of sand would ultimately come in contact with some living animals or plants and therefore they would be also the recipient of his blessing.

In hind sight, I suppose that the chanting (or blessing) I was doing while working on the figurines made by Susan Lordi – which were already named Love, Peace, Angel of Happiness, Father and Son, and so on - would perhaps be in turn conferred on those who purchased or received them as gifts.

Now, I am sure someone out there could pick apart what I just wrote for their inacuracies. I am not uber Buddhist but I find at times Buddhism speaks to me. I don’t really mind if you think I am around the bend a bit. I like the thought of what I did helping me (because it did) and perhaps others (because it could).

Though I do wonder if the chanting over figurines constituted unauthorized mis-use of company property. :)

Postscripts :

** the chant can also be transliterated as "Om Mani Padma Hum" from the Sanskrit, or "Om Mani Peme Hung" or "Om Mani Paymay Hung" in Tibetan. More on it here at Dharma Haven.

*** On wikipedia there are alternate meanings and translations as well.

**** Makes me wonder as well if Padme, the term of affection Anakin had for Amidala was taken from this.


Mike

Mike Wood Photography

Sorry for the absence of posts

Sorry for the absence of posts in the last little while. Have been busy on several fronts and it is taking up a lot of my time. Not online much right now, though I hope this will change soon.

Mike

Mike Wood Photography

Zack Arias video : Transform

I was looking at one of those feed things on Facebook where friends post stuff and one of my more techie friends posted a link to a video originally made for Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider's blog by Atlanta based editorial photographer, Zack Arias.

If you are a photographer, it will likely speak to you on some level or many levels. Don't let the first 90 seconds or two minutes put you off. It is really good stuff.



Zack Arias' post with the video on his own page is here.


Mike

Mike Wood Photography

Allentown in the next generation

I was sorting through CDs this afternoon, and one that I came across was Billy Joel's 1985 Greatest Hits 2 volume CD set. Shortly thereafter, I found myself listening to Allentown, which originally appeared on his 1982 album The Nylon Curtain. Twenty seven years on, it speaks to a new generation as well as it did to the last.

Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line.

Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers at the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we're living here in Allentown.

But the restlessness was handed down
And it's getting very hard to stay...

Well we're waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved.

So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke,
Chromium steel.

And we're waiting here in Allentown.
But they've taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away

Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got.
If something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our face, oh oh oh.

Well I'm living here in Allentown
And it's hard to keep a good man down.
But I won't be getting up today.

And it's getting very hard to stay.

And we're living here in Allentown.

Mike

Mike Wood Photography