I’ve heard of art as a vice, but making a vise art?

© 2009 Mimi Azrael All rights reserved

So, challenged by a friend who set up this apparatus on my fireplace mantel today to repair humidity damage to the wood wall, I shot this image through squinted eyes pretending the apparatus was a sculpture. Shot on a 5dMarkII in available light (no flash), the “sculpture” could be a modern, industrial candelabra or the work of a visionary with found objects? (Well, on second thought, maybe not.) FWIW, the apparatus consists of two vise grips and two metal uprights crossed by a horizontal 30″ Closetmaid shelf track.  The engineering feat is the spring action control of buckling that puts pressure on the wall to flatten it.  Too much information?  The design is quite ingenious.  (Not my idea, so I take no credit).  But as we looked at the apparatus, it occurred to us how oddly interesting it looked.  Like a sculpture installation.  Prodded to take the bait of my friend’s challenge, I picked up my camera.

Beside the oddness of the construction, there’s something about the reflected light and gridded lines formed by the apparatus that caught my interest  – i.e., the grid of windows reflected in the glass of the picture frame,  the grid of the “+” shadow in the center of the image, the perpendicular planes of the mantel, the picture frame and the two metal uprights and the various mouldings, etc.).

My friend tells me that the apparatus will have done its job in a day or so.  But, I may leave it up indefinitely…

At PDN PhotoPlus Expo ’09

Just returned from 2 days at the PDN PhotoPlus Expo’09 at the Javits Center.  Can’t think of a better space to hold this event.  I.M.Pei’s stunning architecture brings the outside in, spectacularly.  A gorgeous day in NYC on Thursday helped and brought light streaming through the lobby (see below).  Besides the product Expo, conference seminars brought thousands

© 2009 Mimi Azrael All rights reserved

of people together to celebrate and share their passion for photography.  Walking thru the Expo, two booths were catnip:  At the Canon booth, I played with a prototype of Canon’s new dSLR, EOS 1D Mark IV (featuring, get this, an unthinkable ISO range up to 102,400!) Check out Rob Galbraith‘s review.  I’m not tempted, tho.  Love my two 5DMarkIIs. But over at the Lowel Light booth (really, the Tiffin booth, now that Tiffin bought Lowel), Lowel showed off prototypes of two new lights that will come to market in about two weeks:

First, the Lowel Blender, a compact high CRI LED light (4″x3″x3″) — constant light) for both still and video shooting — which features a dial on the top of the light that allows you to switch from daylight to tungsten quality light or to blend the two!

Lowel’s/Tiffen’s other new product, the SoftCore is a variation on its successful RIFA lighting system — but without the built-in softbox.  In this case, less is more, because the fixture features a universal speedring and counterweight system, making it possible to attach it to any softbox.  And the new 80Watt high C.R.I. fluorescent lamps give off soft daylight quality light. OK, enough about gear.  The Expo is really about images.  Looking at images, analyzing images, and listening to accomplished photographers talk about their images.  Living and breathing images.

My favorite talk was by legendary photographer Jay Maisel, whose slide presentation, Light, Gesture, Color, and his conversational behind-the-scenes anecdotes showed why the convergence of these three aspects of an image — or their absence — make an image “work” or “not work.” Good stuff.

Leaving the Javits, walking cross-town, inspired, I framed passing street images in my mind and even shot a few on my phone camera.  Can’t say any of them “worked,” but here’s one I’ll share (see above).  True, the tree looks like it’s growing out of her head — not good.  But there’s something familiar about her gesture — a New Yorker being a New Yorker quizzing a street food vendor– and, yes, there’s some (but not such great) light and color.  Oh well, one out of three…  Here’s another shot, this one of building, but I rotated it 90 degrees CCW to make it look more abstract.  Composition could be better.  And the metering? — let’s not go there, it’s a camera phone, after all.  Give me a break.

…more to come