Category: Documentary

When the light, lines, forms and tones beckon

When a photographer sits down with a cup of coffee, and sees light, lines, forms and tones come together in harmony with the focal length of the lens on the camera, and distance from the subject, it’s awfully difficult not to raise the courage and the camera to capture the image.

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Even when caught by the stranger’s eyes; I attempt, with my own expression, to communicate, “Oh well. I simply had to because I knew the scene would look so very beautiful as a photograph. Trust me.”

Leica M8, 50 mm Summilux asph

Visitor at the front door

We couldn’t hear his knock. The crane fly simply clung to the window waiting for me to notice that he had interest in a portrait session. After a few shots I took the SD card to the computer to review the proofs. When I returned (for possible reshoots) the visitor had vanished; leaving no forwarding contact information. Wikipedia says, “…most crane fly species exist as adults only to mate and die.” Perhaps this one wanted to be remembered.

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Leica R8/DMR, 100 Apo Macro Elmarit

Riding blind and loving it

This morning my friend, Kevin Meyers, competed in the Double Bong 40k, ABR Wisconsin State Time Trial Championship, Kansasville, WI. Kevin lost his sight in 1987 when his racing boat hit a wake at 60 mph, threw him into the water, where he was hit by another boat. Lucky to be alive; and living to the max; he now races bicycles (with a tandem pilot). A couple weeks ago, at the Wisconsin State Track Championship, he and his pilot, Bob Springer, took the Gold Medal in Kilo and Pursuit, in the Tandem category. Kevin said, “My bike, Chariot of Fire, almost literally caught fire!” This morning he worked on his record times to qualify and participate in the 2012 Paralympics. Over the years I’ve worked with Kevin on a promotional video and designed the logo for his web site, stationery and motivational speaking work. Kevin’s simply an amazing human being. His web site is well worth taking a look at to discover just how amazing.

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Kevin’s “warm up”

Setting up the “Chariot of Fire”

At the line.

And they’re off to the races.

Coming around the fourth turn, completing the first of two laps.

Leica M8, 50 and 35 mm Summilux asph

Miksang and flow

In an eMail Alan Magayne-Roshak said of my August 24th blog post, “I love it.  It’s easy to get lost in it (in a good way). This reminds me of a David Vestal column where he quoted Picasso as saying, “I don’t seek, I find.” ( The column is at home; I hope I got it correct.) I would say this is a “miksang” photograph.”

After searching the term (beyond the wikipedia link Alan provided) I took it as a compliment; and felt surprise in finding that miksang has taken hold, as a sort of “school” of photography, around the world. Miksang: a Tibetan word meaning “good eye” based on the Dharma Art teachings of Chögyam Trungpa, in which the artist’s eye perceives in perfect harmony with a contemplative mind. This type of visual perception, when applied to the practice of photography, produces a particular sort of photograph. Miksang photographs tend to bring the observer back into the author’s original state of contemplation; behaving, in my opinion, in ways similar to haiku.

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi posited that people feel most happy while working within a similar state; which he referred to as a state of flow.

While I have no idea if these photographs qualify as miksang; I certainly felt in a state of contemplative flow as I made them; and believe they do invite the viewer’s eye/mind to return to that state.

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love marks on paper
heat becomes a memory
beach remains in notes

Leica R8/DMR, 65 mm Elmar on R bellows

Refreshing our Point of View

Ann and I have a tradition of not working on our birthday. The BD person chooses where and how we will spend the day. Ann chose Mauthe Lake as one of several destinations for her birthday. Knowing we’d have a few hours of leisure I packed up rarely used M gear including: the Visoflex with both eye level prism and right angle view hood, and the 135 Elmar (for the M8 of course). Lying on the beach using the right angle viewfinder provided a perfect contemplative photographic afternoon; as well as a very refreshing point of view. And the exercise reminded me how very discreet this combination can seem as we don’t appear to be looking “directly at” the subject.

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For contrast we see (below) similar subjects with a (for today) less interesting point of view.