"I feel like I'm in 'Far Side'"

so many instructions...


Photography class is... interesting. The more I'm there the more befuddled I get. I tend to overly simplify things so I can understand something, but clearly I'm only turning myself around further.

However, I am not the only one who feels/felt that way.

At the end of class last night, the teacher invited us to take turns practicing with objects on a table. Being that there were about 30 of us, plenty of us had to wait for our turn in the paparazzi line. The white-haired men, the pros, had a cluster of about three people around them, watching as they animatedly explained something technical. The teen girls were wide-mouthed, wide-eyed, giggling. Others stared at the camera in their hands with puzzled looks. I was one of the latter, until I realized something: this was really a prime people-watching opportunity. Everyone was distracted, and quite expressive in his or her own way. I found the general mayhem of confused camera-folk far more intriguing as subjects than the objects on the table.

One man, who I quickly decided was far more interesting than them all, looked as if he wanted to cry. His face was red, and he switched from staring at his camera with furrowed brows to staring at the people around him with a look that clearly said, "I am the only person here who is not getting any of this. I am such an idiot." He left with this same rather crumpled expression, carrying his big camera and tripod, and at this point the teacher paused in helping me to ask him how it was going. He made a face.

"I don't know... I feel like I'm in a 'Far Side' cartoon," he said (Far Side featuring lolling, overweight men with the IQs of cattle).

Teacher said something reassuring, but the guy didn't seem to buy it, only nodding vaguely as if he weren't listening. I would have said something to him, but he seemed a little angry as well so I decided against it. For privacy's sake I'll refrain from posting any of my group "spy" photos, including this fellow.

However, here are a few (the best, ha) that I took at home this week, experimenting with aperture. Editing helps. I really don't think I'm getting it, but this is one thing you learn from college: you have to give yourself time to learn something new, like something as huge as 'photography,' and not expect one source to be your one-stop shopping for understanding it completely (although I'm hopeful this class will teach a lot).

Shots:




















































And here's a link to classmate Anna's photos from last week as well.

the separation of time

< the basic idea of The Last of the Mohicans: women are "flowers in the wilderness" that need a knight to rescue them.

I don't think I've ever had to think so much about how deeply we're connected to the time in which we live. Without knowing it, all of us believe and expect certain things because of current history, literature and culture, without hardly being aware of it.

I just finished The Last of the Mohicans for class, which was written in 1826, and started a book by Catherine Sedgwick published the year after. From these authors' point of view, they were writing about history long passed, a time in America's development they themselves hadn't seen. To them, their words were modern, flushed with new knowledge. Today Cooper comes across outrageously sexist and racist, if progressive for his time (while a good deal of Indians in Mohicans are brutish, animalistic savages, others conform wonderfully well to the "noble savage" idea, and are admired by the white characters).

In Cooper's case, what struck me most was how flowery his prose was. The two women in his novel can't just be weeping, helpless women; they have to "heave sobs", fall on their knees praying in thanks, emit "blistering" tears. Looks-wise, of course, both girls (I can't say 'women') possess "shining tresses" and "ruby lips" and beautiful, slender female forms (and on, and on, and on).

Sedgwick seems more intelligent than Cooper - I'm only 60 pages in, but her characters are more complex, and her style less bent to diverge in a frenzy of drama more laughable than anything. She dares to challenge the ideology behind works like Mohicans. What's strange about Sedgwick, though, is how very prominent conservative religious beliefs are in her writing. Characters do all in their power to see that children are baptized, given 'Christian' names, and brought up solidly; any Indians encountered are potential converts living in heathenism, and directly spoken of as so. There is not the slightest bit of doubt as to this.

The spirit isn't misplaced, but the pervasive, heavy-handed way in which Sedgwick portrays her beliefs is utterly opposite to any fiction I've read published today. Completely! Modern fiction writers dislike making declarative statements about the validity of any particular religious system, unless they're addressing the topic of God Himself (or have an axe to grind, in which case they ought to be writing nonfiction). Writers today would much rather explore things connected to a character's strong religious beliefs, such as how they make him or her act and relate to others. A scene in which the death of an unconverted pagan was bitterly mourned would NEVER be portrayed without some degree of irony, removal or outright mocking. Even Christian fiction writers allow a bit of breathing room for skeptical readers, allowing room to judge characters' words and actions as they stand rather than insisting in every scene that Christian beliefs are unequivocally right and everybody thinks so.

After 60 pages you might think these antiquated styles would become natural to read. Hardly. In 2010, Cooper and Sedgwick are still jarring, despite their insights into human nature. I wonder how popular writing today would come across to them.

the ever-elusive bird shot

I'm finally starting to accept that blindly pointing and clicking is getting me nowhere (at least in terms of enjoying the process...) My camera's automatic settings cannot read my mind. Ignoring the technical side of photography entirely - other than modifying the automatic settings I already use - makes for frustrating picture-taking. There's no other way around it.

I don't hate these bird shots - they're the first ones I've ever attempted, after viewing absolutely superb, amazing, is-that-real bird shots on flickr. It's just that I know what the good stuff looks like, and I'm sooo far away.






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