August 4, 2009

Sink


August 2009, Souda

"Oh quarter, oh quarter"
Those pirates they did cry
- Blow high, blow low, and so sail we -
But the quarter that we gave them
Was we sank 'em in the sea

~ Traditional, "High Barbary"

Star


August 2009, Loutraki

Hippo


August 2009, Chania

They've hired men with the crab-tree sticks
To cut him skin from bone
And the miller, he has served him worse than that
For he's ground him between two stones

~ Traditional, "John Barleycorn"

The Happening


August 2009, Chania

Photography can be awfully time-consuming. You can spend hours - nay, days! - stuck in a dark room or glued to your computer screen, struggling to bring out the best of your photograph. You can walk miles and miles just to get yourself in that advantageous position, or wait for hours until the clouds move or the people move or the light falls from that exact angle you were waiting for. (Or, as Ansel Adams put it, "a good photograph is knowing where to stand".) You can spend hours setting your tripod, external flash and spotlights around your scene.

But it is also entirely possible to produce a photograph which satisfies you completely by spending exactly 1/60th of a second: Click.

Photography is widely known to be the art of the ephemeral. It's one of its charms, after all. Here's another one:

Photography is art for lazy people

Can you imagine anyone, professional or amateur, producing a worthwhile piece in painting or sculpture without investing precious time and actually working on it? Nah. But can you imagine a breathtaking photograph coming out of an instant's worth of attention, a point-and-click procedure, a fortunate timing or sheer blind luck? Man, this happens all the freaking time! Spare me the "thirty years and five minutes" clichés. Photography is the only art form that allows lazy people to express themselves with as much variety, emotion and nuance as any art form can hope for.

Why? Because we shoot what we see, and we all see differently. We all frame differently. The very nature of photography allows anyone to push a button (YOU PUSHED! THE WRONG! BUTTON!) in their own unique way, and the rest (preparing to shoot, fiddling with more buttons, or image processing afterwards) are optional. Useful and vastly expanding the creative choices, but certainly not essential. The essence of photography is The Frame, freezing a part of space in time. And even lazy people can handle that.

Sometimes I think of photography as a game of fortune. Did I happen to be in the right place in the right time? Click. I didn't premeditate, I got lucky and took advantage of it. Did I happen to see a wonderful scene from where I was standing? Click. I didn't know where to stand, I got lucky. Did I happen to notice an odd shadow somewhere? Click. I don't walk around to get the perfect shot, I just enjoy finding the best angle and frame from where I happen to stand. Happen, happens, happened, happening. Sometimes photography just happens. And this brings a smile to my face whenever I think about it. Begone equipment-freaks and... hard-working people!

Photography. Just. Happens.


I was driving, doing nothing, on the shores of Great Salt Lake
When they put it on the air, I put it in the hammer lane
I soon forgot myself and I forgot about the brake
I forgot about all laws and I forgot about the rain

~ Pixies, "The Happening"

Virus


2009

Filter


2009

Focus is for pussies.

All we've ever had was now


July 2009, Falasarna

As logic stands, you couldn't meet a man who's from the future
But logic broke as he appeared, he spoke about the future
"We're not gonna make it"

~ The Flaming Lips, "All we have is now"

Signs


July 2009, Falasarna

Yonder


July 2009, Falasarna

I should have stayed way out yonder
Better off with the scorpions and snakes

~ Calexico, "The Ballad of Cable Hogue"

Swirl


July 2009, Falasarna

5 p.m.


July 2009, Falasarna

Stay sick


July 2009, Falasarna

Had all the violence and liquor within close reach
But all bars, pills and threeways lead me back to the beach

~ The Cramps, "Bikini girls with machine guns"

Enter


July 2009, Chania

Ghosts


July 2009, Chania