Question.
In the above photograph of myself as a child, was my mother making me pose like a bridge-and-tunnel lout who just got cheek-punched, or was I really, at that young age, sitting under the roses, actually a cheek-punched bridge-and-tunnel lout?
I'm conflicted about this space, in case you hadn't guessed. While I resolve these conflicts, I am posting trivial tidbits like these at tangentialism.vox.com. Of course, there's also flickr and, occasionally, periphery for less wit and more color.
confusion-ish , photo-ish by tangentialist at 6:53 PM on 14 Feb 07 | Perm-a-link
Wishful Saturation
I should come to terms with this. Subconsciously, I have been color-correcting my most recent shots to feel more "summer" than they actually are. It's little things in the RAW conversion: "Maybe a bit more red", "A little bit of saturation won't hurt", "Shouldn't the sky be more blue?" But I loved summer so much! The light! The people! The sky!
"Hi, my name is David."
"Hi, David."
"I abuse saturation for seasonal gain."
photo-ish , seasons-ish , summer-ish by tangentialist at 11:27 AM on 29 Oct 05 | Perm-a-link | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Photoblogging 2: Periphery, The New Photoblog (I Still Love You, Flickr)
Before I continue, let me point out periphery.tangentialism.com, which I finished this weekend. It's a Photoblog-with-a-capital-P that I'll be directing my daily photos at for a while, supplemented by Flickr for random shots and sharables.
I wrote Periphery because I've spent too long telling other photobloggers that "I really want to have my own photoblog". I love Flickr, and I've been posting regularly there for over a year, but while I use it to photoblog, it didn't feel like "my own photoblog". It's been very good for me, both as a photographer and as a photoblogger, and the community of sharing there is so rich that I don't see any reason to leave, but as even Eric Costello points out, in this interview with Adaptive Path, Flickr wasn't originally put together for Photobloggers-with-a-capital-P:
Flickr was really envisioned initially as an organizational tool for an individual who has this huge collection of photos. The social network was built in just so that you could restrict access to your photos. But what has really taken off with Flickr is that it’s turned out to be a great platform for sharing with the masses, and not just with your small collection of friends...
But we found that it took off when we got some excellent photographers who were interested in using Flickr as a new kind of photo blog, so that the world could see their pictures. And that, I think, is really the primary usage of Flickr now.
In fact, I've changed with Flickr. When I signed up, I only imagined I'd post photos to share for kicks--and you can see that in my early posts, of signs and vacations and cameraphone shots. In the last year, mostly because of the vibrant local community of photobloggers, I've fallen back in love with photography, and with looking at nice, big images, which isn't Flickr's strong point.
In fact, the biggest problem with using Flickr to photoblog is that everyone's first glimpse of your photo is a wallet-sized snapshot, and I'd like people to be have a larger image to gaze upon when they load the page. On Periphery, that's about 900 pixels wide versus 240 pixels wide, which amounts to a lot when I'm posting a photo I'm proud of (ideally, every shot I post). Conversely, 900 pixels make it difficult to hide shoddy work, which raises the bar--a good thing.
Though I briefly considered using Eliot's Admiral package to get around the image size issue, while still keeping my roots in Flickr, I decided against it. Frankly, I think Flickr and I need some space. I've been asking too much of Flickr lately, expecting Flickr to be all things to me at all times. I'll still call Flickr up for daily shots of friends and odd visual couplings (just like old times), but I think the new space at Periphery will make for an interesting change in how I work and edit, and I need that change.
Working on Periphery was incredibly fun, and it came together very quickly (about three weeks in my free time). It's written in Ruby on Rails (geek out!) with a couple judicious visual effect-y, AJAX-y things. I'm holding a couple features back until I have enough photos to make them interesting, but I'm already happy with the way it works. Hopefully you will be, too.
Thanks are in order to a few people: Eliot and Raul's sites both served as inspirations for the layout and features of the site. In particular, the navigation effects are the sincerest form of flattery of Eliot's (and Kottke's) work. Actually, if they're listed in the "Links" section of the photoblog, they're probably an inspiration in one form or another. Thanks to Raul, Keith, and Nick for looking it over and offering advice. And thank you, so much, to Flickr. I'm here because of you, Flickr.
flickr-ish , meta-ish , photo-ish , photoblog-ish by tangentialist at 8:08 PM on 17 Oct 05 | Perm-a-link | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Photoblogging 1
One year ago, when I discovered Flickr, I wasn't taking a lot of photos. I had a digital camera, for vacations and work, but apart from the occasional burst of pictures on my way to the office, there was no documentation of my day-to-day life. After a while, taking loads of photos and just dumping them into iPhoto for posterity became tedious, like cooking for one.
Flickr was just the first of two significant catalysts that started me off as a photoblogger; it gave me the tools to publish. Three days later, I went to the second NYC Photobloggers event at the Apple Store, which sealed the deal. I've been taking pictures almost every day since then, and working to become a better photographer. Each of the presenters at NYCPB2 was really impressive, but there were three NYC photobloggers speaking that day who I think about a lot when I shoot and edit:
- David Gallagher, of lightningfield.com, whose mailing-list method of photoblogging was so catchy that it almost obscured his work as the best cameraphone photographer in New York.
- Keith Kin Yan, of overshadowed.com, and his infectious love for The Image. His attention to details of composition and color is inspiring.
- Eliot Shepard, of slower.net. I'm a huge Eliot Shepard fan. He takes fantastic, honest photos of people, and he wrote his own epic photoblog system to showcase them. Eliot's work as a photographer and a programmer has been a tremendous influence on my work as a photoblogger.
This Friday is the fifth installment of the NYC Photobloggers series at the Apple Store, and marks what I consider the one-year anniversary of my work as a photoblogger. I will be there (sitting quietly, not speaking) as I was a year ago, with a slightly better camera and nine hundred posted photos to my name.
In the next couple of weeks, I'll post some thoughts on what I've learned from all this, and where I'm going with it.
inspirations-ish , photo-ish , photoblogging-ish by tangentialist at 1:13 PM on 27 Sep 05 | Perm-a-link | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Night In McCarren Pool
After having ventured into the vastness of the abandoned pool in Williamsburg's McCarren Park with Nick on July 4th, I knew I had to go back at night. The crumbling pedestals and rusting metal, though perilous in low-light conditions, felt humiliated in daylight. I had gotten some nice responses to the daytime photos, but it wouldn't have felt right to stop there. I planned to sneak in at night during the next full moon, and gathered a couple accomplices to protect me from people with knives.
The pool really feels more alive when it's dark. The shadows sharpen every angle, and you can hear every movement in the pool--footsteps, raccoons, pebbles. Because it's such a fortress, the space doesn't feel as menacing as, say, Roosevelt Island at night. It just feels forgotten there, as if all the kids moved away and the water gradually evaporated.
They're repurposing the pool facility for some sort of short dance project in September, which could precede a larger redevelopment project, assuming funds and community support are there. As hot as it was shooting there last night, I have to wonder why they don't just make it a pool again.
[Tien (of tienmao.com) has a flickr set and his commentary]
brooklyn-ish , photo-ish , williamsburg-ish by tangentialist at 12:24 PM on 19 Jul 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (4)
About The Gates
Jake Dobkin walked a few NYCPhoto people through Central Park last night to do some long-exposure photography of The Gates. Whether or not you're willing to call this installation "art", it's unquestionably a compelling presence, both in the park and in the daily conversation around here. For my part, I'm really impressed that Christo and Jeanne-Claude made it happen; they've proven their success in the Art of Impossible Political Maneuvers (and will be remembered largely for that, I predict). Having said that, I should point out that The Gates are tough to actually mingle with -- they don't enhance the sight lines nearly as well as I expected them to, and they occasionally surround you in a retina-stunning field of saffron polyvinyl. Though it was great to be taking pictures in the park on a February night (with my jacket unzipped, no less), I'd have to say that The Gates is probably best seen from afar -- as is most of C & J-C's work -- and that this piece is a massive pain in the ass to photograph well.
(ahem) but I like these pictures anyhow. I've got a small "Tyranny of Saffron" set on flickr that includes daylight shots of people and Gates.
Other "The Gates" Ninjas: Bluejake, Matt Law, Youngna, and Metroplus.
central park-ish , photo-ish , the gates-ish by tangentialist at 5:42 PM on 16 Feb 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
My Dad Thought I Said "New Yorker"
New York Magazine has published a photo I took on the L train as part of their coverage of the impending ban on photography in the subway system. This is great, for two reasons:
- It doubles the number of publications that have printed my photographs.
- It's not the National Enquirer.
I went ahead and bought two copies, and encourage you to skip out and grab one yourself -- if only to support a publication with such refined aesthetic tastes as New York. When I first told my parents about this, they were really excited for about half an hour, thinking I had said "The New Yorker". Whatever -- it's a step in the right direction (hear that, Conde Nast? I'm coming for you.)
I am, as always, available to surreptitiously photograph you on the subway system, or in somewhat less crowded environs of your choice.
UPDATE: Whoa! Also, check out the flickr homepage for this same shot! You may have to reload, but the Goethe quote alone is worth it. Damn! New York, flickr, and the Enquirer! Beat that, Walker Evans!
flickr-ish , photo-ish by tangentialist at 6:44 PM on 17 Jan 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
CameraMail: Putting Red Tape To Good Use
Kyle Van Horn and Justin Ouellette have some fun with postal workers. Justin documents the outcome:
On the 22nd of December 2004, Kyle Van Horn taped a disposable camera to a piece of black foamcore and inscribed upon it the following message: 'ATTENTION POSTAL WORKERS! Please help us with our project. As this camera travels across the country we want photos of all whom it encounters. Please take a photo before you pass it along. Thank you!'
This little project handily improves the reputations of both disposable cameras and postal workers. I have to say, though, that I'm surprised at the apparent lack of ass photos.
(Via VERBA.chromogenic.net.)
photo-ish by tangentialist at 9:01 PM on 04 Jan 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)