the complexity in design

I think, perhaps, there are things around us that we take for granted. We don't see the detail in them as we hustle on by, or just use them as a tool or a means of getting from A to B.

This is a roughly Westward facing photo of the underneath of a century old rail trestle. I beams, and oxidized lattice girders from an era before powered flight, dusted with the weekend's fresh snow.

Someone drafted this bridge on large rolled out blueprints. Perhaps in Toronto. They designed iron framework to rest on concrete and stone bases. Each pair of support columns were built with hundreds of rivets, then they made another pair, then topped that section off with track bed and rails between them. Repeat that 20 or so times till the whole span is completed.

Only then can you see an artistic geometry revealed. A repetition of now rusty X's, V's and diamonds heading towards infinity. I wonder if the engineers and workers who built this structure ever took in it's symmetry, and appreciated it's form as well as it's function.

Sometimes being out of breath, and winded, after a long climb up a snowy embankment to shoot a particular perspective is worth it.

Mike

Replace Save with Invest

Snow dune, #1

"I think photographers need to drop the “donate” or “help save me” vocabulary that sounds like it was lifted from the Red Cross home page, and adopt terms like patronage, participation and guarantee. Let’s be perfectly honest here. None of us – not myself, not Johnson, not Towell nor Ludwig – are desperate for food, shelter or medical care. We live privileged lives compared with most of humanity. The simple truth is that we want to tell stories, and we’d like the people who are most interested in our work to get involved financially."

New funding models, Part V – Crowdfunding, The Good, The Bad and The Awkward « tomas van houtryve | journal (via photographsonthebrain)

So true. I am down on my luck right now, but in a 1st world sense. Not in a Pakistan flood, Haitian quake sense. I would most certainly like more people to be interested in my photography and to collaborate and invest and be involved financially with my success. But I don't want a parachute dropped CARE package. Well. Only a small one.


Mike

Is it spring yet?

Missy, August 2008.

The idea that the lake freezes over and make poor backdrops for shots of women in bikinis bothers me. Is it spring yet?

Mike

Winterized Equipment

A grey overcast mid winter day sometimes calls for shooting with a moody high contrast black and white style in mind.

These images are of 1960s era Timberland and Ellicott water control gate lifting equipment on top of a small dam.

Looking up, you get a different perspective on things.

Another forested area. Different trees. Looking up, you get a different perspective on things. Fairly warm looking mid-winter sun, blue sky and tall trees. It really wasn't warm though. My eyes were tearing up and my cheeks were numb about an hour into my walk. And I never seem to bring right footwear on these impulse walks. You can really clean shoes of road salt by walking in coarse snow to your ankles for a couple hours. :)

Bench by Frozen Pond in Winter

"Everyone has oceans to fly, if they have the heart to do it. Is it reckless? Maybe. But what do dreams know of boundaries?" — Amelia Earhart

Mike

Trees of a similar age

Shot  early  last week in a momentary respite from all the snow. This area is now covered again. I presume this section is part of a planted forest. A lot of the trees are uniform in spacing and type and fairly clear of undergrowth.

Major Dick Winters has died

It was announced today that Major Dick Winters, DSC, Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, US 101st Airborne, and the inspiration for the fantastic HBO series Band of Brothers, died January 2nd at the age of 92. Via Washington Post

Mike

Vivian Maier, the unknown street photographer

Vivian Maier lived her life and no one knew of her fantastic photography. Upwards of 100,000 negatives of her street photography in Chicago were found in a storage unit. One third still undeveloped. No one knew who they were by. And they are spectacular. Up there with street photographers such as Gary Winogrand.

This video, by Chicago TV station WTTW showcases the story and some of her photos. Some of the photos are on display from this month through April at the Chicago Cultural Center.

If you are a photographer or an artist, you should give this a look.

Mike

The Keys to Success

Sometimes the keys to success are hanging around, just out of reach. Like these two sets of keys I found hanging randomly yesterday in a wooded area. Judging by the rust on the spring clip and the rings, they had been there a long time. Waiting for someone to take hold of them and put them to use.

Mike

Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life

Water Block, 2010

JK Rowling  gave the commencement address at Harvard in June 2008. The most important lesson learned in life that she could give to the new graduates was the benefits of failure.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life...

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.

Full text and video of her speech can be found here at The Harvard Magazine. I am listening to it as I write this and it's really worth checking out.

Mike

In 2011, I will...

Many people make resolutions made of Unobtanium this time of year. Mine is simple: To be happy in 2011.

Mike