It's A Living Room Photo Blitz

PhotoBlitz Assignment

Date: 11/14/2013 ~ Start Time: 6:57 pm ~ Captured Dad’s hand in the shot to mark the start!

 

Whenever I meet a person, their hands are the first thing I check out-I just love them because they are used to hold and to create. Leave it to my Dad to find the world clock on his phone just in case we need the time in Vancouver! My Dad suggested taking a multi-use photo by getting his hand and the start time in one shot. We had just come back from a dinner date. We took this shot, hugged goodbye and he left as I set my alarm for 19 minutes. My Dad has worked in Quality Control since before I was born so he who lives on the use of his hands with small parts looking for small details. He is also a drummer so hands are his bread and butter. I fondly remember as a little girl going to Father-Daughter dances with him when he would give me his index finger and I would twirl around as I held onto to it. His hands are strong, worn, hard-working and loving to me. I hadn’t seen him in two months. It was a special serendipitous moment that he was around to help me out here.

Choice Picture # 1 ~ CD Rack for converging lines

Music is my life and still this is a hard picture to share because I know people make assumptions about others based on their taste in music, it’s just another way we try to box people into survey marker boxes they are asked to check. Still, all of the music I have found, whether I still give it a spin today or not, has shaped who I am today and so I guess it makes sense to paint a picture from a list of artist and band names in order to get an idea for how someone is. I liked this use of converging lines because they don’t actually overlap one another. I also like the smoothness of the angles and the fact that the CD jewel cases have the same shape and sharpness as the rack that houses them. It’s almost symmetrical, it’s almost informal but not quite, after all you can’t box me in!

 

Choice Picture # 2 ~ Light Bug Mustache Mirror for making an ordinary object look interesting, almost supernatural

This picture makes me so happy. Last year I bought this light bug on clearance as a treat for myself after Christmas. You press a button on the top and it lights up your entire room with stars and a quarter moon in red, green or blue lights. It’s a personal planetarium. So I saw him on my bed and immediately went to the bathroom where I have window cling mustaches up on my mirror from a mustache game night I had months ago. I put him up to one mid-air and took a picture. He’s a flying bug with super cool style. I love how this came out because there’s no reflection from my back mirror and my hand is nowhere in the shot! I love how pensive he looks. I love that he’s reflective as he glances at his reflection. I should probably give him a name since I’m getting so attached!

 

Choice Picture # 3 ~ Vintage NYC Poster & Mercy Street Wall Quote for an idea of “Openness”

 This was a battle between two NYC photos. The other was a postcard of two people kissing on top of a taxi under a bridge, which stands on my bookcase, next to NYC guide books (I never noticed that before). I was going to use it to represent both human emotion (love) and openness because they are not afraid to jump up on a taxi in gala garb and kiss passionately out in the open. However, I continued to be drawn to this photo instead as a representation of openness, I think mostly because of the quote from Peter Gabriel’s Mercy Street above but more on that later. NYC is my favourite place to be and what is so cool about it is that when you are walking around, you are surrounded by shadow because the skyscrapers are so massive and in such multitudes and yet it feels like the most open place in the world. A place where you can be as wild as you want and it’s just accepted as a typical day in the city. A place where people’s dreams come true and where anything can be achieved. A place that was once flat, and part of it (the Battery) was non-existent and open to possibilities. Yet someone dreamed of building and cars, once only ideas in their head, and made them real. This is the most open place I have ever been to, both in body and soul!
 

Choice Picture # 4 ~ Pussywillows in a Vase for an interesting shadow

This one was an accident shot and those are always my favourite. I love pussywillows because they make absolutely no sense to me. They are furry buds that grow from the earth. They feel like bunny paws. How is that possible? So perplexing and yet so very fascinating! I also am a big fan of soft cuddly feeling fabrics and textures so naturally, I scooped these up at Trader Joes when I saw them. The best part is that I can’t kill them if I forget to water them for months! Again-I don’t get it! Anyway, these sit at the door, where the light isn’t that great but it worked to my favour. Look at stalk that’s to the right of the middle and focus on the bud that’s lower, on the right. Doesn’t it look radioactive and moving, spiky and alive? The shadow here is so ominous, so dark and mysterious. I can’t get over how un-menacing the scene is though because the buds look so similar to deer hoofs, which I guess is not frightening to me. It must be its cuddly, furry exterior that’s throwing me off!

Choice Picture # 5 ~ Teal Throw Pillow for dominated by a single colour

I think this could have worked easily for abstract as well. I just realized that it says dominant, not completely. If only I paid attention to the details of words. So here is my completely same colour photo. I’ve already made mention to my addiction to lovely, cuddly divine feeling fabrics and textures and my couch is the place where my friends take advantage of my ultimate comfort apartment theme. I can’t even describe the feeling of this pillow but I’ll try. It’s like fresh mowed grass that feels as soft as a baby’s bottom. Yes, I think I’ve done it justice. Simply put, it feels fabulous. I love how this pillow has all different kind of angles and directions, like nose hair and yet it’s still one colour. No different shades, just plan teal. This pillow is calling to me right now as I type this…it’s getting late: 10:30. Come rest your head, you’ve had a long day!

End Time ~ 7:16, 7:17 or 7:18 Um….Can you trust different devices?

So I’ll refer you to the beginning where I talk about saying goodbye to my Dad to warrant the extra minute I apparently took. I think it’s a trick though because according to my watch I was ahead of time. I’d trust the Mockingjay over a digital device anytime! I know, I know. Hey, I just realized that I started with a hand and ended with a hand-one that created the other. Wow, the life cycle is so astounding!

A Reflection on PhotoBlitzing

Is that a word; photoblitzing? Ah, who knows, it is now. I am really tired so I apologize for the loopy commentary but I had fun and I’m sure you’ll all have fun reading them, especially if you are a bit tired too. I already gave explanations to why I chose the photos I did and what I saw in them but I wanted to touch upon the questions they impose too.

I explained this project to my Dad and he took a list of the ten choices. I told him I figured my apartment was the best place because everything I love is here, it’s a clear reflection of the chaos that make up my many interests. I’ve tried to make it the most comfortable place on earth so that my loved ones can come hang out and fully relax their bones. It’s also been compared to a museum because there are a lot of quotes, pictures, books and other things to observe and read. Dad agreed I would be able to easily find everything on this list “you have plenty here that represents human emotion, that’s for sure” he lovingly snickered. He was correct.

I thought I would go in order, taking one shot of each choice but it didn’t happen like that. I took three different shots for a few, single shots of others and multiple shots of the same thing over and over again to get it just right. I was definitely trigger happy. Flash, no flash in my dim apartment was hard to gauge. I took at least ten shots of a fiber-optic peacock in my bedroom. Speaking of that, I was shocked at how many different shots I took that I didn’t use. I was surprized at how differently I looked at those things completely differently, like the pussywillows or my teal pillow. I didn’t feel as rushed as I thought I would feel. I took many more pictures than I thought I would be able to. Twenty minutes turned out to be a very long time through the lens of the camera as a digital tool, which I cannot say for this laptop.

The photos that worked the best where the ones that crept up on me by surprize. My apartment is my sanctuary so I know what is around here and I had ideas in mind for some of these choices before I took the first time shot. Still, I was most pleased and proud of the shots that came in the spur of the moment like the vintage NYC poster and a shot I took of a clapboard and film strip hung at an angle in my bathroom (I don’t think I understood that one; “something at an unusual angle”). I obviously enjoyed this project, just like I thought I would. I may have enjoyed the commentary bit most of all! All in all, it was an experiment in honing our observation skills. It did just that! It's now 11:00, nighty-night!