Unhinged

I've felt disconnected from myself for a few years. This photograph has been in the wings, furled, for too long. It stands on its own and it joins two of the things that I love: photographing stuff, and bicycle stuff. And close-up stuff. Three things.

Unbroken

Taken: 04/19/2014 in the shop. There is nothing odd about a quick link, but there's a tension. There's a sense of imbalance and of back-and-forth. I like it and I really didn't see it until I looked at it closer. I've known this photo for 3 years and only looking at it tonight did I finally connect with it.

So There Was

In honor of Starlite I present to you, the worldly version of riding on a beam of light (presented in the key of a child's imagination).

Shooting Star

Taken: 03/26/2012 in Kensington, Brooklyn, NY. This is a photograph of a T6 Torx key. Originally this wrench was used to transplant my computer's stomach (that's where we keep our memories, right?) and now its outards are on display. How quaint.

Grazing for Change

What do rhinos have in common with zebras? The green grass.
But wouldn't it go better if it were a bit more flavorful?

A sliced cucumber, lengthwise, with a few crystals of salt sprinkled on:

Crystals

Taken: 02/01/2012 in the kitchen in Brooklyn, NY. I've been photographing some different food items and was trying to figur out what I wanted out of my cucumbers. I enjoy them with salt and I hate cutting circles since they tend to run away. So here's the proper way to enjoy a good cucumber.

Shot with the excellent MP-E 65mm Macro lens. Handheld with the Canon MT-24EX Twin Lite flash. Accept no substitutes.

Unfilled

The subject may not be food but it certainly isn't one to be overlooked.

Power given will eventually be power taken. None know this better than our round friend.

Power

Taken: 01/10/2011 in my living room. The dancing patterns are far more interesting than the identification.

Exploring Green

"I support you."

"I'm on board."

"We're made of each other."

--Jealousy's nightmares.

Thin

Taken: 01/06/2012 in the Kitchen in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, NY. The cucumber always presents a question in the kitchen. The next month will be devoted to an exploration of foods in their forms and presentations. Some will darken the board and others will decidedly not run.

Fenced In

The tips point and stretch and try to fling their bodies off the fence--forever trying to make up their mind.

Not Barking

Taken: 01/03/2012 in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The wind was fierce but I stood my ground and so did this little guy--though he didn't have much choice.

Show with the help of an old lens and some extension tubes. This is the very tip of a point of a fence rod, the bent portion is about 7mm long.

Never Did

Not ready now, nor ready later. I do not apologize, I do not float. Letting go is overrated.

Taken: 01/03/2012 in the Dark. Tinkerbell is beholden to her sphere.

The Will Demands

We all have monsters inside. Just not all of us are truly pine cones.

Dragons

Taken: 01/03/2012 in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, NY. The bitter cold was only so because there was no way for me to capture it. Instead I busied myself with my new macro capabilities (extension tubes are everyone's friend) and turned my back to wind. These pine cones were just jingling off some evergreens and were only about 1-2cm across. But under the lens the cones look like little monsters waiting for mommy to feed them.

Migraine

The question of scale is not answered by measurement of the physical dimensions. Scale can be emotional, can be a question of constitution. Derelict or honed. Frayed or knotted. Made or untucked. Where does a person reside on the scale?

Taken: 02/23/2011 and 10/19/2011. This photo can be read as many things. Ultimately it should be read as a departure from what I normally like to do. An experiment. I am learning that photographs are to contain meaning, an emotion. Contain-like a pill bottle within itself has pills, dreams of pain-free-existence.

Call it Cowed

Do not be scared. I do not bite. My teeth have left, and rightly, abandoned my gums to the mighty grime.
Similarly I do not smile. This sardonic grin is all I can don. My blue eyes will trace your fear, mascara scaring and scraping the very fillings out of your teeth.

Taken: 08/20/2010 in Kensington, Brooklyn, NY. Part of the mid-night macro shoot, this gnome creeped his way to the front of the line. He only looks partly insane. The grime is an artifact of a hard-life, sitting upon the shelf.

Supporting Goals

The peppercorn is at once fought over and supported--a proxy child.

 Taken: 08/21/2010 in Kensington, Brooklyn, NY. The photo is another of my late night macro shots. The lesson learned this night was the lighting is important. Lighting affects how an image is viewed--where is the darkness, where is the shine, every photo had a totally different character and I was like a kid in a candy store where all the candy looked equally good, but the one that would gain the approval of Mother was kept unknowable.

Flowerhenge

Huddled, as children over jacks, the inner petals wait their turn to rose and open. The pie-crust center reveals not-a-word. The outer petals lean away, listening for bees, scooping up rainwater.

Taken: 08/22/2010 in Compost For Brooklyn, in Kensington, Brooklyn, NY. I love this image. It's, as I imagine, the best representation of the Big Bang that we have--the colors and heat bursting into the ether. The explosion is only frozen for a moment on its way to fullness.

Curiosity

Pinned to the line, pined for the edge.

Fastened to the fascinating line, holding fast the light, the dark.

Taken: 02/23/2011 in Kensington, Brooklyn. Years ago I saw a painting at a modern art museum. It was two tiny triangles, taking up about 1% of the canvas, but painted such that the remaining white space resembled the letter N. I was filled with anger and confusion. And here I am, photographing shadow.

The edge that light and shadow share between them is so enigmatic. What lies between the two respective edges (ignoring the graded transition that'd be revealed if you look close enough)? Rod Sterling also couldn't let it go (and at this very moment I just realized this sentiment is in the opening lines of the Twilight Zone).

Looking Up

Things are looking up for ants everywhere. First palm trees then giant sequoias. All things will be brought down to scale.
--
Breaking new ground is never easy. Harder still when you're raising twins--they never seem to agree on anything.

Taken: 04/24/2011 in Glendale, Queens, NY. The soil beneath my feet was rather ripe with options. I've never caught a plant at the earliest stages so I thought I'd make a play for it.

Galvenized

Standing on the conquered Apple, Pepper wonders if his flavor has overpowered the wrong foe. Surely there is no room for Weak Sauce, but is Apple truly the enemy?

Taken: 08/21/2010. Another installment of my evening of small-becomes-big photography. Both peppercorns refused to give up the stage and stood crowding the, almost comically small, island. There was too much flavor on the plate.

It all Shines

The wisps, tendrils of life, sprout as if kicked by the wind. Suspended.

And, as if to say "thank you," the fruit takes on the shape of its lifegiver. Hiding behind the form is the sweetest form of flattery.

Taken: in Kensington, Brooklyn, NY. This was part of a mid-night project to test the macro lens. Others are coming from this series. This particular photo, I will not give away what it is of, needs to be enlarged to clearly see the edge of things. It is one of my very favourite photos; nothing but simplicity and yet the detail is in what's assumed rather than what's seen. It is also uncropped and unedited.

My Shipping Address

Bug 1
Flower Edge
Allwheres, WE

Please address packages thusly, else Bug 2 gets them and makes a show of being so celebrated as to receive mail for two. No one wants that.

Taken: 08/11/2010 (again at) the Chateau Ramezay Museum Garden in Montreal, Canada. There were very lovely giant prints of flowers just outside the garden and I felt--if not inspired--challenged achieve a similarly striking effect. I'll let you know when I've succeeded.

Less Yam More Knot

Tuck and roll, my friend. Nigh a night is tumble free.

Taken: 02/03/2011 in Brooklyn, NY.

Tractor Pull

Into the belly of the beast; from the beast his belly. Through and through, this derails our very fears, casts them aside like a tunic at bathtime.

Taken: 02/03/2011 in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY. This lovely Superbe derailleur is soon to the block. 'Fore that it has been deemed a tractor. It will pull its own weight. It was dug out of whoknowswhatpile. I've been having fun with the new lightbox at the shop; this derailleur and others have gotten some spectacularly upscale treatment.

Licked the Sky

Intensely reaching for the sky, shooting for the ground. These flames are a contradiction of the classic American Dream. It's fine if you don't see it. It's not fine if you don't look. There's nothing that's complex that comes out of the soil. What's complex is how we feel it.
---
In the cup, the ballerinas danced, bowed, made hay, ever unaware of the swell surrounding them. No two moments connected, they ignored all signs of danger until the very instant they were plucked from the earth and handed, dandily, to the girl on the waves.

 

Taken: 10/17/2010 in Oyster Bay, New York. The macro lens attachment is a wonderful thing. I saw this little guy as one of the few undamaged flowers in a copse. The only non-corpse in the copse. There is always something to see, even if it's faint, or already half adroop. Take a moment, look, give it a passport.