Full Moon

Moon - 082810

I've been working on more of my photos with Moon Marie that we took while I was in New York in June.  Many of these images were harder to work with since I was using the LCD projector and I have to really work on them in the post-processing phase.

The image above was a treat and came out so well.  I played with the colors and feel it celebrates her sensual beauty.  Moon has a quiet grace, elegance, and erotic aura about her in so many of her images.

Some of the projector images of both Moon and Valya are hard to work with.  The content was disturbing to shoot and more disturbing to work with.   They are not pretty photos, they are harsh, graphic, and while not directly violent, have feelings of post violence.  They haunt me when I work on them for a few days, but they have a meaning to me that I am trying to figure out.

Once again, Moon is a true gem to work with.  Her elegance, enthusiasm, hard-work, creativity, and willingness to really push herself in every image made it a treat to create with her.  If you are in New York and need a model, work with her.

It was a full moon a few nights ago.  It was like that when I was in NYC.  Seeing it reminds me of my work with Moon and my short stay in that city.

Marketing

Vatican - January 2010

"I've found artists are lousy at self promotion, monetizing and maximizing earning."* - Jim

Last night I had dinner with my best friend, Jim.  Jim is a web design/internet marketing consultant and content producer.  He mainly helps entrepreneurs build their web presence by creating effective and eye catching sites that help the consumer discover their services and products.  His goal is to help each client find at least a 10 fold increase in revenue over the cost of his services.  Jim is an ethical business man who wants entrepreneurs to succeed.

We were chatting about my websites that I need built for my photography.  We came up with the fact that I need two sites, tied together.  One will be my portfolio site that I can give to potential galleries, magazines, contests, etc.  The other is a commercial site promoting my future photography courses, photo books, photo contract work, and other services and merchandise.  I may even need a third one for my adult content (not porn, just not appropriate for the youngin's).

Jim asked me a while back to send him links to websites of other photographers that I really liked.  I told him how I liked the clean, simple, elegance common in all of them.  I don't want the formatting and graphic design parts competing at all with photos and words.  He felt that was really helpful, but then he asked the hard questions, "Who are your buyers, customers, consumers, clients, etc.?  What do you have to sell to them?"  These questions that makes it hard for this artist to self-promote, monetize, and maximize earnings.

I've been thinking about these questions a bit now.  Who would buy what I create?  What would they buy of my creations? With those two simple questions I've come up with a list of potential things I can offer and who would buy them.  This is important so we can point our advertising to those narrow groups to maximize revenue from advertising with out sending out spam for unwanted stuff and wasting effort and resources for those limited gains.

Here are a couple of tidbits I discovered from talking this through with Jim.  Very few art buyers, if any, will buy my photography, especially the nude art, and hang it on their walls.  As much as I love seeing my work big and on a good wall, society isn't ready to have those photos hanging in their homes.  My photos are also not the type that make for good subscription-based websites.  I don't produce enough content fast enough to do that, and to be honest, while I want some of my photos to arouse and excite, it is not for the quick masturbatory relief that subscription sites aim towards (not a judgment on those sites, I think they are helping the environment by reducing the amount of paper going into Hustler, Barely Legal,  and other stroker mags.)

For now, I am exploring where my work can be exhibited/published to get to an audience and make me some scratch from it.  I have some ideas, but they are not ready to share.

It is hard for artists to self-promote because many of us create art for ourselves and then hope some audience will come to us wanting it.  That doesn't work unless you are extremely lucky and good.  We are in the age where artists must promote themselves and be willing to sell both their art and themselves as a branded product.  I am coming to accept this as not selling out, as long as I keep to my artistic morals, aesthetics and ethics.  Now comes the next challenge, what the hell is my brand????


*This quote may be off a bit due to the influences of enjoying a cold beer, good Italian food, great company and eating outside of a restaurant on the first warm summer evening in northern California.  I think that is the gist of it though.

Money - Pink Floyd - The backup singers at 7:00 minutes are priceless and damn sexy.

The Rat Pack

Artist unknown

I just read  an interesting article at Slate.com about the formation of the Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack and how the original movie Ocean's 11personified this group.  Sinatra and his group of tag-alongs became the symbol of playboy masculinity of the late 1950's and early 1960's.  While I know of some of their hijincks, I didn't know the genesis of the pack.

Most people think the Rat Pack consisted of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. with Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop playing secondary roles.  According to the article, the group was formed in 1955 after Sinatra invited a group of friends to Vegas for days of non-stop partying.  At one point, Humphrey Bogart's wife, Lauren Bacall saw how hungover and worn out they all looked and said, "You all look like a goddamn rat pack."  The name stuck.  

That is a funny genesis story, but what shocked me was that the beginning Rat Pack had women in it.  Some of the female members were Judy Garland and Lauren Bacall.  These ladies were high-up officers in the club and participated in the fun. 

All this debauched antics and craziness took its toll on its members.  Bogart, the group's rat in charge of public relations, once shared with a reporter the packs self serving purpose was "The relief of boredom and the perpetuation of independence. We admire ourselves and don't care for anyone else."   Bogart died in 1957 from cancer.

I find it interesting that even back then, the burden of celebrity had made these people create a group to escape its traps.  They no longer wanted to be constrained with being role models and the boredom from that life. 

What has changed since then?  Not much.   Many celebrities have his/her own entourage they hang out with.  This loyal group of friends help the big name cope with it all.  This coping can manifest in true help or dangerous help, depending on the enabling intentions of the group.  Many celebrities also hang out together because who else understand you better than fellow celebs.  Maybe one change though is the growing number of female celebrity rat packs like Paris Hilton playing with the Karsdashians and others. 

So, where does all this rambling about the Rat Pack mean for us mere peasants?  We all seek to be part of communities that understand us.  We have churches, clubs, careers, charities, and other groups that share our interests and challenges.  I like to hang out with models, artists and photographers.  I also like to hang out with other loners (I know that doesn't make sense, but for most of us loaners, we enjoy spending time with one or two others who appreciate and respect each others' privacy). We talk the same language and share similar experiences.  We go out together to push ourselves (not quite like the original Rat Pack) yet also have a safety net group to come back to who understand us. 

Lightening the mood - gay marriage and reading in the pixel forest.

Las Vegas Shakedown - 2010

I have a very busy day at work.  I start a new photography class for the fall semester tonight.  In light of all this, I want to share a few funny items I found on the internet.

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong by Will McGarvey

01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

The horrors of reading from The Onion

Nation Shudders At Large Block Of Uninterrupted Text

Story Here!

Getting to Know You - Valya

Valya - 081710

There are moments in art when everything aligns for perfection.  I started looking for models to work with a month before going to New York in June.  One found me, Moon ( a perfect moment of serendipity), the other I found, Valya.  Finding Valya was a perfect alignment of  working hard to find the perfect model and finding a wonderful woman who was quintessential to the session's success.

I spent hours going through One Model Place, Craigslist, and Model Mayhem looking for models.  In my head I had a feeling for what I wanted and I hoped I would find it before getting to New York.  After looking at hundreds of portfolios I saw the small thumbnail for Valya and knew instantly, that is her.  I went through her portfolio and my initial gut reaction was right.  I had to reach out and ask if she would work with me.

Valya is an artistic and erotic force to work with.  She exudes the attitude, look, and emotion I wanted to capture of and in that great city.  She is the perfect person to work with when creating art.   As she wrote in her Model Mayhem profile:

I am an art, erotic and occasionally a fetish model, or as I like to think of it, a performance artist, based in NYC and available domestically in the US.
I am also a fancy free and open-minded woman, passionate about making fine and erotic art (and blogging about it too)

Valya writes a great blog which was another reason I wanted to work with her.  Much of her work has a raw force to it.  She lets her images speak for themselves and offers minimal, but important written commentary, opinions and thoughts.  I appreciate her conservation of words and only adding as much as is needed.

I am excited to bring back a feature from my old blog, The Sensual Seven Seconds, the "Getting to Know You" interview where I present someone I find who is important to art, creativity, writing, photography, and life in general, using the Proust questionnaire.

Valya is the first person I thought of to share her responses for two reasons.  First, she is an amazing artist, model, friend, and person that I deeply respect and appreciate.  Second, she is the first person I've interviewed for this feature that has actually shaken my hand, worked with me to create some fantastic art, and have shared a non-internet creative relationship with.  For both those reasons and many more, I am honored to share her answers to these questions.

1. What is your favorite word? Russian word for porcupine, it sounds so cute: yozhik
2. What is your least favorite word? "Dirtbag", ew right?
3. What turns you on? Bizarre things, Freud would have a ball with me
4. What turns you off? Insincerity
5. What sound or noise do you love? Rain drops against a window
6. What sound or noise do you hate? Angry voices including when it is my own
7. What is your favorite curse word? Motherfucker
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I was and technically still am a fashion stylist (on hiatus while I get undressed for the camera), but when I was in school I had full intentions on becoming a psychotherapist, an analyst more precisely.
9. What profession would you not like to do? Physical labor
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? "Ask me anything!"
11. What is your idea of perfect happiness? It's found in moments and is so fleeting, kind of the way Spalding Grey discussed "the perfect moment" in his monologue film "Swimming to Cambodia".
12. What is your greatest fear? The inevitable despair my children are bound to suffer from time to time through their lives.
13. Which historical figure do you most identify with? Maybe Mata Hari? I'm not sure.
14. Which living person do you most admire? Bjork, a genius.
15. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I am SUCH a procrastinator.
16. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Cruelty
17. What is your greatest extravagance? I'm afraid I'm not quite there!
18. On what occasion do you lie? To potentially save feelings or when I'm too cowardly.
19. What do you dislike most about your appearance? Oddly, it's the thing I often like most and that's my ethnic look.
20. When and where were you happiest? Please see # 11
21. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?  To be more practical...but then I wouldn't be me- at all.
22. If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be? That I had a real one.
23. What do you consider your greatest achievement? My 2 kids definitely, its not that making them was difficult ;), but raising them alone after getting divorced when they were just a little over 1 year and the other 3 months old, that was/is hard. And I like who they are as people, I like to think I have something to do with that :)
24. If you died and came back as a person or thing what do you think it would be? Someone privileged and with a heart of an artist.
25. What is your most treasured possession? My childhood photos.
26. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Unrequited love
27. Who are your heroes in real life? Strangers who say "bless you" to other strangers when someone sneezes.
28. How would you like to die? I am afraid to die, if I knew I was dying, I would prefer to take my own life. I wouldn't do it gory style, I would just OD on a boat load of feel good drugs. 
29. What is your motto"Its just the atmospheric pressure"

Thank you Valya.  I hope our paths cross again.

Back from Sin City

Me in the NYC Simulacrum

Spent a long weekend in Las Vegas celebrating our anniversary.  While there I thought of fellow blogger Terrell and his work.  I hope one day we can meet up when I get down there again.  As for this trip, every moment was hot, full and fantastic.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas*

 The is one of the cleverest ad campaigns ever.  It was so effective that the saying is worn out, yet still holds cache both in the hearts of those visiting, and the feeling the city promotes to those of us visiting it.  Nothing happened to me while I was there that needs to be kept secret or compares to the antics of the bachelor party from one of my favorite recent movies, The Hangover.  

I took over 500 photos while bouncing about.  That is not much for me when I am traveling to take pictures.  That is a ton when traveling to celebrate an anniversary.  I intended to try and capture the simulacrum of the city, and in particular the resort we stayed in, New York New York.  Along the way though I found many other parts of the city that made me reconsider it as more than glitz, facade, avarice and vice.  I left this morning with both an appreciation and soft desire to live there. 

I am going to work on the photos over the next few weeks and write about Las Vegas - my interpretations, my growing love for it and the issues I have about it.  Without going into details now though, the people (not just those working in the casinos or entertainment world) were kind, helpful, and very interesting.  Thanks Las Vegans... Veganians, Vegasonians... or how ever you label your selves.

 
* Heard a spoof on it.  "What happens in Reno... is greatly exaggerated."

Side notes -
One major positive of Las Vegas - no asthma.  Even in the smoky casinos I had barely, if any, asthma.
One major negative of Las Vegas - the heat.  For the past month I've enjoyed an SF cool summer of highs in the upper sixties and lows in the fifties.  It didn't get below 77 in Vegas.  It was around 105 yesterday.  It is a dry heat though.  I found that if I followed the same rules that got me through Burning Man (also in a NV desert) I did well.  I grew to enjoy the heat, or at least to function in it.  II moved slowly, drank lots of water, and stayed in the shade if I had to be outside for long periods of time.  I really liked rolling down the car windows in the hot evenings and cruising around the city, bathed in the hot moving air.  On the other hand though, it was a smack down when we would leave a hyper-air conditioned casino and appear in the direct sun on broiling concrete.  It felt like a gut punch.

Hit the road Jack...

Hung Like a Bus - NYC

I am traveling for a while.  I doubt I will write much during that time.  I hope to be shooting though.


I have a great treat for everyone upon my return.  I am bringing back a blog gem from the past.  Until then boys and girls, keep breathing, sleeping, eating, sexing, and staying alive.


One more thing, Happy Birthday Photo Anthem's Blog.
Here is a link to an interview with Terrell, the creator of that fine blog. 

Here is a song to play me out.

If you are going to be a bear...

... be a grizzly.
This saying bothers me.  I get the obvious point, if you are going to be something, make it be the biggest/best.  I find it odd though how it sounds like an old saying but has become a meme (at least to me) in just the past few months.

I first heard it on the brilliant FX show Justified.  I then heard it again a week later on a very different show.  Since then it has popped up in articles, jokes, and other cultural arenas.  Once again, it sounds like an old saying, but why haven't I heard it before?

I've heard the old bear saying, "some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you".  Of course there is the rhetorical question of, "Does a bear shit in the woods?"  ANSWER: Yes, and I stepped in it on a hike.

I grew up in and played around Montana.  I've seen black bears and grizzlies.  I have a can of bear spray.  My alma mater's mascot is the grizzly (I will send a one-of-a-kind, never published photo electronically to the first reader who correctly identifies the college through blog comment).  While living in a state with these beauties, I never heard that saying.

Some memes have very tangible roots, like the dancing baby, "Where's the beef?", and David after the Dentist (see below. I've been there David and feel your angst)   We spread these through word of mouth, email, twitter, blogs, and Facebook.  They become part of our current culture.

 


I guess the reason this saying is bothering me is that I don't know its history.  If I found out Teddy Roosevelt, Mark Twain or even  Sarah Palin coined it, I would be happy and move on.  I get annoyed by how these unattributed memes come to consciousness and spread like infections.  Maybe it will become like "Kilroy was here" and everybody will know it but not its origin.

What got me thinking about all of this was the movie Inception, which I saw last Sunday.  I liked, but not loved, the movie.  One interesting point in this film about dreams is where Leonardo's character, Dub, tells another that we never know or care how we got into the location in our dreams.  We just appear there and move on.  Nothing in our lucid life is like that.  We always know how we got to a point.  Maybe this is where I am bothered by the grizzly saying.  It is an overlap of experience between sleeping and awake.  It is one of those small moments/experiences I can not find a distinct attributable genesis of.

We expect the following in our dreams-  random things pop up and we don't notice them or question them.  They just are.  I can handle that in dreams, but when little things happen like that during consciousness I start wonder about them too much.  To me it means so much is happening below the surface of public consciousness that become the fabric of our culture and life.  Maybe I should accept these anonymous memes as part of life.


NOTE:  I grew up in a state where a grizzly kills a human every year or two.  To add to the tragedy, the grizzly will also be killed.  Much has been written about the human/nature animal boundary issues.  As we continue to build into former wilderness, we are going to see these tragedies continue.

I know a little bit about ursus arctos horribilis.  First, you don't want to see one up close.  Second, they are faster than you (sprints up to 30mph).  Third, they are big, up to 1200 pounds and standing over 9' tall.  They have decent senses of hearing and smell, but bad eyesight.  They are protective and reclusive.  They would rather not interact with humans, but if startled may charge.   

The photos above are of a life-sized plaster cast of a  grizzly sow footprint left in the mud in the Bob Marshal Wilderness area in western Montana.  I added my hand (I have big hands) and a pen to show scale.  After seeing that, you know why I have a very healthy respect for grizzlies.

Sex, Religion, and "American Values" - in their words

Candace - 081010

Interesting quotes on sex, religion and "American" values.
 

Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things:  One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell.  The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love.  ~Butch Hancock

To hear many religious people talk, one would think God created the torso, head, legs and arms, but the devil slapped on the genitals.  ~Don Schrader

Why should we take advice on sex from the pope?  If he knows anything about it, he shouldn't!  ~George Bernard Shaw


I thank God I was raised Catholic, so sex will always be dirty.  ~John Waters


Sudden acquaintance brings repentance.  ~Thomas Fuller

Conservatives say teaching sex education in the public schools will promote promiscuity.  With our education system?  If we promote promiscuity the same way we promote math or science, they've got nothing to worry about.  ~Beverly Mickins

Chastity:  The most unnatural of the sexual perversions.   ~Aldous Huxley, Eyeless in Gaza, 1936


The only thing wrong with being an atheist is that there's nobody to talk to during an orgasm.   ~Author Unknown


Virginity can be lost by a thought.   ~St. Jerome

The reproduction of mankind is a great marvel and mystery.  Had God consulted me in the matter, I should have advised him to continue the generation of the species by fashioning them out of clay.  ~Martin Luther

Those who have prophesied dreadful consequences as a result of the greater sexual freedom which the young assert - unwanted babies, venereal disease and so on - are usually the very same people who seek the fulfillment of their prophecies by opposing the free availability to the young of contraception and the removal of the stigma and mystification that surround venereal disease .  ~Colin Ward, Anarchy in Action


When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned.  Do not have sex with the authorities.  ~Matt Groening

Now, if groups like Moral Majority have their way, there won't be any sex education at school, and our kids will be the dumbest in the world when it comes to sex.... But our parents are sexually retarded too.... Fear and primitive morals are creating a sexual pressure-cooker in this country and soon the top will blow.... Only in the U.S. do we find children drawing a picture of a baby coming from the clouds or from under a cabbage leaf.  ~Floyd Martinson

This last quote says it all about how messed up our country is with body/nudity/sexuality issues in relation to religion and "American" values.  As Marlene Dietrich said:

Sex. In America an obsession. In other parts of the world a fact.

Dirty Things

Donna's Ranch Brothel - Wells, NV

A dirty book is rarely dusty.  ~Author Unknown

Not much to add to that quote other than it is true.  I guess it goes well with the saying of "a rolling stone gathers no moss".

Post Fine Art Nude - A self-serving post

Sail on silver girl, sail on by

Sail on Silver Girl,
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way - Paul Simon

When I think of the original photography masters of the fine art nude I can come up with a list of the iconic legends.  I know I am missing a few big ones, but here are the ones I thought of first.

• Edward Weston
• Brett Weston
• Ruth Bernhard
• Imogen Cunningham

Likewise, it is not hard to list a few contemporary fine art nude photographers.

• Stephen Haynes
• Kim Weston
• David Swanson
• Carrie Leigh

Most of the names listed in the first group were key artists in the modern art movement of the first two thirds of the 20th century.  The modern art photographers' work emphasized the following key elements:

• The technically perfect print
• Aesthetic beauty
• Accenting texture, curve, line, shadow and contrast.
• Or as Wikipedia says, ...Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. A tendency toward abstraction is characteristic of much modern art."

There are many other key elements and I am undervaluing their work by not mentioning them.  Their work, combined with non-nude photographers like Ansel Adams, defined the look of the artistic black and white print.  This value and aesthetic still grips art today and can be seen in the works of the second group I mentioned, even if their outputs are in color.

Starting in the late 1950's, some say with  Robert Frank either ending it, bridging the divide, or starting the postmodern movement, the modern art movement began to be pushed aside.   According to Wikipedia:

Postmodern art is a term used to describe an art movement which was thought to be in contradiction to some aspect of modernism, or to have emerged or developed in its aftermath. In general, movements such as Intermedia, Installation art, Conceptual Art and Multimedia, particularly involving video are described as postmodern. The traits associated with the use of the term postmodern in art include bricolage, use of words prominently as the central artistic element, collage, simplification, appropriation, depiction of consumer or popular culture and Performance art.

A part of this movement I am finding important in my continued artistic growth is the growing away from the absolute aesthetic perfection of the fine print and moving toward works that have deeper conceptual meaning and purpose for me.  Maybe I am starting to grow up into my art, and not another artist's.

Over the years I went through my photography phases where I tried to take photos like those I admired.  Some of these phases were the National Geographic phase, the Ansel Adams phase (I have a photo of a sunrise on the Grand Tetons over looking the Snake River that I took in the same spot as Adams did hanging in my bathroom),  and the Edward Weston phase.  I took a few private classes with Kim Weston and learned so much about the aesthetic of the fine art print and the hard work to create it.  I photographed my first nude model during the first session.  One of those prints is hanging in my home office right behind me.  I truly appreciate what I learned during those phases.  It is now time to move on.

When I photographed Leila, I unknowingly wanted to go beyond the classic fine art nude.  I created a few fine art nudes with her, but also some images that had a deeper meaning to me.  Those early attempts were crude, at best.

I really felt the change when I worked with Candace.  I shot many images that fit the classic fine art nude and were beautiful, but I also experimented with projected imagery.  I found some of them were very good and believe that was the moment I wanted to get away from creating images of pure aesthetic beauty celebrating the lines, curves, shapes and shadows of the feminine form.  I wanted more from my photos.

Since then I've been trying to avoid creating my versions of the modern movements classics.  I love and respect those styles, but they are not my cup of tea to create anymore (although one or two on the side are fun).  While I still find beauty in them, I feel my art needs more to it than that style offers me.

Much of the work I created in New York is getting closer to what I want.  Both Moon and Valya blessed me with their artistic beauty to help me with it.  The city itself blessed me with sharing its little and large treasures.  I am excited about this push away from my prior "pretty pictures" to making things that have a bit more narrative and personal purpose in them.  Not all my stuff is good, but is better for me.

Boredom and lust

Valya - 080710

Boredom: the desire for desires - Tolstoy

Ever notice how similar the body feels when overwhelmingly bored or full of lust?  You can feel both burning through your body and hear the crackle of electricity in your head.  The tingling static charge desiring to do something, whether a new adventure or sex consumes all you think about.  All you know while existing in either states is that something had better happen... now.  True hell is living in both simultaneously.

Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst - Frederick Buechner

Of all the worldly passions, lust is the most intense. All other worldly passions seem to follow in its train. - Buddha

Boredom

Boredom - LKillKira

Boredom: the desire for desires - Tolstoy

I was going to write a boring post about boredom.  I decided to research some boring boredom quotes to make it even more boring.  Sadly though I started to find the quotes about boredom to become an interesting philosophical exploration into human nature, which can be exciting for some and even more boring for most.

I scoured  many pages of "boredom" quotes.   Below are some I find interesting.  I tried grouping them into themes or dichotomies (such a boring word).   I added some of my thoughts if I felt they were either insightful or boring.

Boredom is the root of evil theme

Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need - Voltaire
Boredom is rage spread thin  - Paul Tillich
Boredom is always counter-revolutionary. Always.  - Guy Debord
Boredom is... a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it. -  Bertrand Russell
Idle people are often bored and bored people, unless they sleep a lot, are cruel. It is not accident that boredom and cruelty are great preoccupations in our time. -  Renata Adler

Two major causes for strife are boredom or desperate need.  Out of both we seek something we are missing.  The first is for excitement and novelty.  The latter is out of survival.  On second thought maybe both have common thread of survival.  It is hard to survive a boring existence.

Without evil, the world would be boring Theme 

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom -  Anatole France 
Nature is unfair? So much the better, inequality is the only bearable thing, the monotony of equality can only lead us to boredom -  Francis Picabia 
Morality is a venereal disease. Its primary stage is called virtue; its secondary stage, boredom; its tertiary stage, syphilis.  - Karl Kraus 

Why do we love gossip and the poison pen?  Why do we seek to hear dirt on others?  Why do secretly, and not so secretly, enjoy seeing the misery of others?  If all the world was perfect, we would be so damned boring.  I may think I am above this, but I do take delight in seeing Bush, Cheney, Coulter, etc. when they step in something foul and get flailed in the media.

Passion and love leads to boredom theme

Love fed fat soon turns to boredom  - Ovid

 I guess I can only think of one point to sum this theme up for me.  Complacency = Boredom

Boredom leads to dying or death theme 

Is boredom anything less than the sense of one's faculties slowly dying? - Arthur Helps 
To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.  - Heraclitus 

When we give into boredom, we slowly die.  We relinquish our passions, desires and controls in the desire of comfort.  Ever wonder why fancy coffins are padded and look so comfy?   The dead wont appreciate it. 

Boredom has its uses theme

Boredom, after all, is a form of criticism - Wendell Phillips

In marketing you must choose between boredom, shouting and seduction. Which do you want? -  Roy H. Williams
Your true traveller finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty - his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure. -  Aldous Huxley

Boredom has its uses.  It is a time to reflect on why we are bored, what have we done to get bored and what is next.  Similar to the "boredom is the root of evil" theme, boredom can be the springboard to future excitement.  Maybe we have to look at boredom in the same way as we should look at drugs   they are neither good or bad, it is how we use them that can be good or bad.  I can use my boredom to inspire me to hurt the world or I can use it to find my next path- even if it is just a trip to the garage to rebuild a carburetor. 

OK, now I am growing bored of this topic.  August is the month for boredom, so lets celebrate this boring time.

August Quiet

Siren under the Rock

August is a quiet month to prepare for the coming shorter days.
August is a quiet month to think "What have I done?"
August is a quiet month to think "What I can do better?"
August is a quiet month to read.
August is a quiet month.

Someday you will have to say goodbye to the sun.

Someday you will have to say goodbye to the sun.

Someday you will have to say goodbye to the sun.
You will bid farewell to the moon, the sky, the clouds, and the stars.
As all things that live, we dim out to a smoking wick, our quiet goodbyes to those things that were  always with us acknowledge we were the grain and they were the beach.
They may not hear our goodbyes, but their existence in our beings need to be recognized and bid proper adieu.

My Pixel Forest Numbers Were Wrong.

Our friend Dr. L just wrote a post following on my post titled, "Thinning the Pixel Forest".  After reading hers I questioned the accuracy of my first post.

I double checked my facts on the number of photos on the internet and I was wrong.  I got the 10,000,000,000 (10 billion) from a conference lecturer last year.  According to the internet trending site Pingdom, in 2009 there were:

• 4 billion – Photos hosted by Flickr (October 2009).
• 2.5 billion – Photos uploaded each month to Facebook. (964 per second)
• 30 billion – At the current rate, the number of photos uploaded to Facebook per year.

I was wrong.  My 10 billion number was way too low.   The overwhelming part for me is those are the numbers (34 billion) for two sites in 2009.  I will assume then Facebook will get at least another 30 billion images this year, totaling 60,000,000,000 in just two years.

I believe this gluttony of images has the same cause as the gluttony of food in developed nations.  Technology has made the production, processing, and distribution of both food and photos much more efficient, easier, cheaper and individualized.  For under $10, I can easily buy 10,000 calories.  A century ago, the cost of a calorie was much more, even after adjusting for inflation.  The same ease of use and consumption is true for photography.

We have to accept that photography publishing is no longer a medium/tool of the few deemed good enough and important enough to be publicized.  We all could take photos with our little Kodaks a few decades ago, but we had no way to mass publish them.  Most of the photos ended up in shoe box and a few ended up in an album or framed.  With new technology I can instantly publish any image for the world's online consumption, quality be damned.

I can reminisce about the good old days.  They are gone and we are not going back.  We (as a culture) eat too much and publish too many photos.   I can not turn around that global tide of gluttony.  I have to accept that so many will consume too much food and create too many photos.

My power is in what I can do with my own habits.  As with food, I can choose my nutritional and photographic diet.   I choose to ignore the trivial photos (both mine and yours (plural for rest of humanity)) and only consume the truly nutritious and important ones.  As I stated in my old post, I also choose to only publish my good stuff (both writing and photos), in a limited fashion.

After reading a comment from an anonymous reader I am thinking of holding back more photos for future uses that can earn me money or at least form the basis of my life's work.

When you get to the high end photographers such as Carrie Leigh, Kim Weston, Leonard Nimoy, Lucien Clerque etc...you will find that they post very few images.
You know that they are holding back for print, exhibit and collector value.

I've met and learned from Kim Weston.  He is a very generous and kind man.  He also knows a good bit of making sure his art gets to those who truly want it and can afford it.  My art is not at that level yet, but I have to start treating it as such.  If I don't I am just adding to the overly populated Pixel Forest.


NOTE - I just deleted over 70 less-than-stellar posts from this blog.  I have them backed up elsewhere, but since this is their public outlet, you wont have to read or see them anymore.  They live in the pixel forest's burn pile.