Rosie

Rosie has more personality that most people I encounter in my day. We are told she used to belong to a family that has since moved, and Rosie chose to stay. Now she is a neighborhood cat, a loose cannon, kind of like a mercenary that doesn't do anything useful.

I think 2010 is the year of the crisis. Between that, and the new house, and the wildly successful exhibit that has been going all summer, the usual DarkTopo photo nerd content has fallen by the wayside. For example: I bet you didn't know that I got a Flektogon 50/f4 for the Pentacon 6, did you?

In fact, I got it back in the spring. It's staunch. Imagine stealing a traffic cone from a construction site, painting it black, and attaching it to a lunchbox. That's the Ukrainian way of making wide-angle, square-format photographs.

Of course I ran a roll through the camera to function test the lens when I got it, but lately I've been noticing some other issues. Since I installed the focusing screen myself, I've been afraid of calibration errors. Furthermore, I've noticed that the prism finder has way less than 100% coverage (no surprise) and that the coverage it does have appears to be off center (surprise).

So I carved out a day among all the other crazy days, and set about testing. As the tack-sharp text on the bottle of bourbon demonstrates, the focus is spot on:



The viewfinder coverage, on the other hand, is not.



The red circles mark the pieces of masking tape I placed on the wall in an exact square. I then lined up the corners of the viewfinder with the tape. The coverage, then, is low and to the left. Not so good, but also not so fixable, so I guess I'll learn to live with it.

XTurkey

I spent all day looking at Anastasia Volkova's unbelievable photography. This sort of thing is not normally my style, either in terms of the make-up and posing, or the post process. But it's so freakin good, it makes me think that if I could shoot like this, I would.

For now I'm just going to start over exposing, color casting, and using a slicker watermark.

DarkTopo Wins Best Writing and . . . Most Inspirational?

Well, folks, in case you missed the Yahoo headlines this week, DarkTopo received the Best Writing award at this year's BlogAsheville Blogapalooza! This is the second year in a row I've trounced my competition with impeccable grammar, witty prose, and vote buying.

Once again, for the third year in a row, congrats to Zenography, who always seems to edge me out for the Best Art/Photos. Watch your back, buddy.

The big shock--so big that I'm still going back to the announcement page to make sure I didn't make it up--is that DarkTopo also won the Most Inspirational award. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over? I'm mean, I'm honored beyond words (a first) but I'm also completely surprised. I didn't even coerce I mean ask anyone to vote in that category, nor did I vote for myself. I guess all those Highway to Heaven re-runs I watched as a kid are finally shining through.

At first, I was a little concerned about what the "inspirational" tag would do to my gritty image. I mean, have you seen the Ozfest work? I thought maybe I should post some pictures of bruises or grenades or rock and roll bands just to counterbalance things. But then I realized that I had already posted all of those in the past month, so the question that the Bard raised is pretty apt: What exactly am I inspiring people to do?

I'm not sure. But the public has spoken. I'm a role model now, sort of like Maya Angelou. And though I didn't ask for this responsibility, you can count on me, readers, to stay strong.

OMG!

2010 Blogapalooza Awards!!!!

Collateral Damage

For years I've planned to build a lightbox to photograph all the artifacts I find while I'm shooting. In my head, my work takes on a Zelda-esque complexity of labyrinthine landscape images, coupled with a painstakingly annotated inventory. "Railroad spike, recovered from Kona industrial facility, April 6, 2005. Site of April 7th train derailment. Oops."

It took my wife's sprained ankle to make me actually do it. I wish I could paint a sprained ankle like the one she has. A big 4'x8' wall hider, like something Scott Upton would do, with purple and yellow and green. Anyway, the bruising is fading, so it had to be tonight. Now I can has lightbox.



Yes, that's the Pixar lamp on the right. I forced it into slavery. Here's the ankle:



Pretty rough, right? Should have seen it a few days ago.





The problem is that all of the things I've found are packed up somewhere, and because we are continually painting (hence the white knuckles) we have not unpacked. So you're stuck with pincushions and bruises, and the discovery that a lightbox and a DSLR make a pretty good negative scanner.



The other problem is that lightbox photos are so easy, and they look so good, that I end up shooting everything I can fit in it, and then I stare at the computer screen wondering how I can market these awesome product shots. Of course, better photographers than I have already taken better pictures in lightboxes that weren't made from a box they got at the liquor store, and their photos are covered in understated slogans that only their target audience will understand.

So I have to keep focused. No more of this wimpy studio work. Back out into the world, to photograph things through a lens of existentialism and vintage video game lore.

The 2010 Blogapalooza Awards! VOTE FOR ME!

Alright, readers, it's that time of the year when tireless bloggers are finally validated with non-monetary awards. The 2010 BlogAsheville Awards will be presented next weekend, and I'm in the ring defending my Best Writing tiara. It's going to get ugly, and the best part is, you get to choose who's the ugliest.

DarkTopo is in the running for Best Writing and Best Art/Photos, but I won't turn down the Blogger You’d Most Like to See Naked award if that's what the public wants.

Vote Here!!!!!!1

Because I know I must back up my rugged good looks and disarming charm with substance, I'd like to call your attention to DarkTopo's Greatest Hits, and I've also put together a list of my favorite posts from the last year or so:

It's Wedding Season! (No Bag Limit)

The Fall of the House of Cooper

Joel Sartore on RARE: The DarkTopo Interview

Light Leaks . . . (i has them)

The Walk

A Study in Scarlet

That Old-Time Religion