Photo: Available

THE SETTING:

You were told it was going to be over in a matter of hours, but it's
been over a day and you're still stuck in the Shelter.

It was a beautiful week in the big city where you work. The weather
was seasonally pleasant, the people bustled back and forth between
work and home, and everything was working just as it always has.
Then, on Friday afternoon, loud sirens went off all around the city.
On the TV and radio, there were news reports of a giant chemical spill
on the highway. Apparently several trucks had flipped over and spilled
an unidentified hazardous substance out onto the road. Due to the
spill the air in the city has been deemed unsafe by the government.
You and your co-workers were shuttled to various locations to "Shelter
in Place". "Shelter In Place" is a term used to describe sealing
yourself in an enclosed area to wait out an emergency. You have been
given a radio, toiletries, a first aid kit and told to wait in this
location until the radio announces that the air is clean.

In the beginning of this crisis, the radio announced that this
emergency would be over within 8 hours. However, it's now been 24
hours and the radio has been repeating the same message, to remain
calm and to stay indoors. All of you who have cell phones have run out
of batteries and the radio is the only method of contact with the
outside world. You have already eaten the limited supply of granola
bars and water that you were left with, and all of you have begun to
feel hungry, restless and nervous about the continuing situation. It
is now twilight and a new message is coming over the radio waves. . .

Day 231: These Empty Spaces

Photo: Available

This was taken after a beautiful wedding, though not at the wedding. This photo was taken at a gas station, because that's just how classy I am.



( Day 230: Cradle to Grave )

This is done with a long exposure. I am really, really happy with how they turned out.

The blur is from movement. I would fall forward or back during the long exposure, which is why the blur lines are the way they are.

I was taught about playing with exposure like this by Earl Newton, director of the tv series, Stranger Things. We spent a night playing with cameras. It was one of the most informative nights of my artistic life, especially with regard to the technical aspects of photography.

I seem to learn the most when I meet other photographers and talk to them about photos. I learned from Katie West, Jack Scoresby, Earl Newton and Sohma Dawling. I learned by talking and sharing. I learned by doing. I learned by playing. My classroom was a hotel and a bedroom. My teachers are my friends.

Day 228: J.R. Blackwell

Photo: Available

The creature lives on an island, hiding in an old society, using old magics to hide what it really looks like. The creature has seen to much not to understand that it's days are numbered. New people are flooding into it's world, and all the little tricks it used in the past won't work for much longer, and all the troubles of the past are coming back, specters and curses, traveling on the backs of the young.

It's change or die, and it's too old to change. It's going to end soon, and it's going to end in blood.


( Day 227: This too will pass )

Day 226: The Spot

Photo: Available

Yesterday at 3:00pm, I was hit in the head with an idea for a one shot experimental action/horror LARP. It is the best idea for a role-playing game that I've ever had.

It may be too experimental, too wild, too scary for some people, but damn, do I want to play it.

Taken on top of my favorite parking garage.
Yes, I have a favorite parking garage.

Photo: Available

I used to know several people who seemed to believe that there was only a limited amount of joy in the world. That when one person experienced success, it was taking success away from other people. When one person found a great partner, it was taking that great person off the market so that others couldn't enjoy them. Whenever a friend would experience some kind of good fortune, landing a great job, graduating from school, anything, these people would experience a sort of bittersweet joy, because even as their friends were doing well, it meant that success was taken away from them, or from anyone else.

I don't believe there is a limited amount of joy, or success in the world. When someone in my network, a friend, a co-worker, does well, it seems to be a rising tide that lifts my boat too. When one of my friends publishes a book, when their podcast gets popular, when they are happy and inspired, it only serves to increase my joy as well. Mur sells her book, Playing for Keeps, to Swarm press, and now my photo is on the cover of a book that's going to be widely distributed. A friend sells a story, gets picked up by a major distributor, gets a gallery showing, sells a comic book. These things aren't now off limits to me - on the contrary, now I'm better off, because I have a friend who has done them. I get to learn from them, help them, and celebrate with them.

Maybe that's why I really enjoy putting time towards my friends and their dreams. Because I get a lot of pleasure from seeing how joyful they are, because in helping them, I'm helping myself. Because joy isn't finite. Because now I'm with people who generate joy and it seems to blossom, in an eternal spring, around us all.

Day 222: In The Life Of

Photo: Available

It's not always intentional, when two days go together like this. I'm not always thinking Monsters and Masks and Makeup and Red and Black, oh yes, I'll do that for two days and see how it goes.

Sometimes it just happens. I often feel a little ackward about this, because part of being an artist, I feel, is being intentional about the work, understanding what you do and what it means and why it's there. I suppose that I could say that not knowing is organic, or that there will always be something about an artistic work that is in the eye of the beholder or changes with the times, but I still feel that intention is important.

I slept for four hours last night. I'm having trouble getting to sleep, stopping my mind on it's merry go round of characters and words and scenes. My imagination is playing scenes for me. I see a sixteen year old girl waltzing in a dark room with a monster, I see a farm converted to a prison. Music gets my mind rolling and it doesn't want to stop, not even to sleep.

So much to do.


Day 221: Half Blood

Photo: Available

Photo: Sold!



I have been working on this concept for several days, the idea of a missing body in a picture has been fascinating to me. I really think that today, I nailed exactly what I wanted out of this photo. I had a picture in my head of draped red robes, of a missing body, of the implied exposure of the body without the body visible.

The title, Teiresias, is taken from a character in a play I was in once. Teiresias is a seer. Seers are the vehicle for a message, and thus I think it is appropriate for a photo in which the body is invisible.

Jared Axelrod draped the robes in this photo and suggested that I keep the hands, which was a good instinct.



( LARGE VIEW: Day 220: Teiresias )

Photo: Available

Yes, there was a time in my life, before she met you, that I fucked your girlfriend. But that time is over. Let’s face it, I haven’t fucked your girlfriend in a while. She and I, well, we had a good thing going, but she’s seriously into you now and I’ve found my life-partner and our schedules are really intense and the fucking? The fucking is just time we don’t have. I’m not going to be fucking anyone’s girlfriend for the foreseeable future. I shall fuck your girlfriend no more forever.

I was going through my clothes, looking to see what we could get rid of and I came upon this t-shirt. While appropriate for that particular time in my life, when I did fuck your girlfriend, it is no longer who I am or what I do. No, that time is over.

So I was about to throw it into the goodwill bag when I thought that if it did go to goodwill, it would probably get tossed into the bin, rather than offend the sensibilities of the good customers of the good-will. And lets face it, this t-shirt deserves to go to a nice girlfriend fucker. This t-shirt deserves to be worn. I have only had cause to wear it three times, and it deserves far more than that. It deserves a loving, girlfriend-fucking home.

If you are that girlfriend-fucking lady, or if you want a gift for that girlfriend fucking lady, shoot ten dollars my way for shipping and I’ll send it to you. It’s 100% cotton, American Apparel, size M/OS, whatever that means. I can’t send it to goodwill, knowing they’ll just make it garbage. It’s seen a few good times and I want to send it to someone who can show it some more.

Day 213: Lady of Fire

Photo: SOLD!
Thanks Paul!


Day 213 was sold last week, before it even hit my blog, for 213$.

When I started this project, I really didn't know the kind of response I would get. I suspected that the photos in the under 10$ would get scooped up by friends due to the price and friendship and other nice things. I didn't suspect that my photos would keep selling steadily up into the 50$ range. I didn't expect that people I never met would buy my photos over and over again. I didn't expect to see a photo go for 86$. Then, last month, at Balticon, I sold two framed photos for 100$ each.

Then, just a few days ago, Day 213 goes. Now, admittedly, my 365 Days project is special. I'm only selling one copy of each print, so anyone that buys is getting the only one, ever. But still, I'm honored that someone feels that my photo is worth that much.

Some people have said that it might be a good idea for me to reduce my prices, to put on a sale of my 365days photos. But if I put my photos from the project on sale for 30$ a pop, I would be doing a disservice to everyone who bought one for a lot more than that, people who believe enough in what I do, who enjoy and respect me enough to put money towards something they like, that they fell is worth the amount I placed on it. I will never reduce the prices in my 365days project. They will remain at what they're at for as long as I live.

Besides, I still have photos that are available in a good price range. The cheapest photo available is 21$, but my favorite cheapest photo is 25$, and is my interpretation of Titus. It's a bit violent for most tastes though, so I don't think it's to a broad taste. My favorite unpurchased photo under 100 dollars (my buyers always seem to snatch up my favorites) is Day 78: Nude. Maybe it's just because of what I was thinking that day, or the simplicity that just seemed to work there, but I really like that photo.

My favorite so far changes from day to day. I like to look at all of them, really, because I can see, in all the things I've learned, in all the little failures and successes, I can see exactly myself grow. Even in the mistakes, especially in the mistakes. One great photo isn't possible without a crappy one. Day 47, which I love, wouldn't have happened unless I did day 46, which isn't so good.

A 365Days project, any daily project really, seems to be about training your mind and body to work when you want it to work. It seems to be about training yourself to be inspired, to create when you are tired and hungry, when you are distracted, when you are sad, when you are stressed. At first, the work you do when your stressed and upset and uninspired isn't very good. Then, over time, you learn to work when you are sick. You train yourself to do good things even when you don't feel like it, even when you'd rather be in bed. You train yourself to be quicker. You learn how to do a decent job in a dash. You learn tricks and techniques and then you are in the drivers seat. You can bring inspiration on command. You can deal with setbacks and pitfalls. You start to see compositions, or possible compositions, wherever you go. You start to see possibilities.

With my photos selling, with the ever increasing comments on my flickr page, with authors and publishers asking for book covers, I'm starting to see ever more possibilities. I don't know whats coming next, but I can tell you, the view looks good from here.

( Day 212 )