Bakerstreet

I got a LEGO VW Bug for Christmas

Here we started, it has 1600 pieces and two instruction books

Dashboard

inside, I knocked off the speedo and when I put it back I didn’t notice it was sideways, I’ll have to fix it

Coming along

Engine

finished

Is this the end of film? Kodak has discontinued kodachrome film, what is probably considered the greatest of all color films ever produced. I think I need to get a bunch of rolls before it disappears, I may even still have a roll in the fridge. I hadn’t used it in years, mostly due to the fact I shoot mostly b/w film (‘everything looks worse in black and white’) and my switch to digital, then there was the fact that not many labs process it, I would use ectachrome and process it myself which is not possible with kodachrome. It’s a sad day for photography.

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OK, well you saw the first one but I thought it wasn’t clear enough and his hair was hard to see so here he is again, bigger and with his VP,  I mean his TP!

A hawk sitting in the tree in our yard scoping out the seafood buffet in our pond.

The loonies on the left go way beyond the line in the things they do, things that if the right did they would flip out over. The liberals love to write and do things to McCain and Palin that they would consider racist and outrageous if done to Obama. A case in point, Jill Greenberg’s photographs for Atlantic magazine that she decided to photoshop. If a photographer did that to Obama there would be outrage by the liberals, and with reason. So is turnabout fair play? I don’t really think so but…

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Rosemary, Florida

Seaside, Florida

Well Photowalk was yesterday, and though I knew it was coming up and wanted to do it, as usual, I forgot. Oh well, Maybe next time. Anyway, here’s the photo of the day from last weeks trip to Panama City Beach Florida, for my CIL who complains I don’t blog enough!

I’ve been mulling over all the talk about the Yale Art Project. As an artist I was asked if I thought it was ‘art’. Having only read about it and not seen it, I can’t really say. I do know that art is more of a personal opinion then anything. Just because you don’t like the sound doesn’t mean it’s not music, saying that something isn’t art is the same.

Some painters use watercolors, some acrylic, and some even blood. Does the medium change the fact of whether it is art or not? Art is sometimes controversial. Nude photos, drawings and statues always have some that will call it pornographic and smutty. Abstract art is called weird, strange and garbage. Picasso, Pollock, Dali and others created works that were strange and subject to interpretation.

Performance Art is another gray area, it’s not the same as say, a painting, it’s more like acting or theatre with a more abstract tone. What I usually find is that performance art is used more for social or political rants that may or may not matter to the viewer. The problem is that while I compare performance art with acting and theatre, actors have to be good at acting (or have good looks and/or big tits!), the same is not true of performance artists, anyone can just ‘create’ a performance.

So what about the Yale art? Not having seen the work, I’m not even sure what kind of art it is. I have heard it is artwork, performance art and just a publicity stunt. As performance art, it doesn’t make sense, she is not menstruating at the gallery, as I’ve heard, the art is already done, and I’m not sure what statement she is trying to make. As artwork, having known lots of artistic types, I’ve seen them use all matter of medium to create their art, paint, mud, garbage, and yes, even blood, if it is what they think is the right medium, then I see nothing wrong with it. Of course in this case, I don’t think that people are upset that she is using blood so much as how she is getting it and what the blood may contain.

Going on what I have heard about it, in my opinion this just seems to be a way to draw attention and get those 15 minutes of fame. Most of the artists I know create because they have to, it is what they do. They may use their art to make money, but most don’t care much about getting rich and famous or in the news. The money they make is used too live on. None really care to make it big so much, sure they may sometimes think of hitting it big, but doesn’t everyone? I hope to film a movie and I am working toward that end.  My goal is only to make the movie, if I manage to make some of my money back (or hit it big) then that will be bonus. One of the screenplays I have written could be considered sick, pornographic, twisted and controversial, but that is not the reason I wrote it. The art is what artist most cares about.

As one who likes to draw, paint and photograph nudes, dead things and other strange subjects, can I truly pass judgement on another artist work that I haven’t seen? While I don’t share it, I understand peoples anger at her choice of medium, I believe that is exactly the reason she choose it, to create a controversy more then to create art.

So I finally broke down and got a digital camera, I still plan on keeping and using my film camera though. I got a Nikon D40x SLR body, I already have lenses for it, though they don’t auto focus.

There are several reasons I have waited to go digital, I have a great film camera and getting a digital would be expensive to get a comparable one. I love film, it seems more artistic I guess you could say, having to develop the film (I shoot mostly B/W & IR) is great fun, seeing the photos appear before your eyes, it feels more like creation then just taking the photo, I’m sure most people don’t understand as they just want their pictures and don’t care about the process.

One thing about film is that you have to think about your shot, you only have 36 frames per roll max so to get the best shots you want to make sure it’s right, if you shoot B/W or infrared like me, it’s even more important to get things right as B/W & IR are not forgiving like color film is. You can totally screw up the settings on color and still be able to salvage the picture, With B/W and IR, you shot crap and that’s what you get, crap. Your best bet is to bracket your exposure which means that roll of 36 is more like 12 shoots or less. I’ve read somewhere that a good photographer can get 1 great shot from every hundred or so photos if he’s lucky, that means he goes through 9-10 rolls of 36, and that is with thinking things through.

Yesterday I was checking out the new camera, I decided to take photos of the fish in the aquarium. I took 63 photos in a few minutes and got maybe 2 that are worth keeping. In my defense, the fish didn’t want to cooperate and stand still! What I am most afraid of with the new digital camera is that I won’t think about the photo I am taking like I do now. I have a 4 gig card in the camera and can now take almost 400 photos before filling it. I can also erase any that I don’t like to make more room. Will it be easier to just keep pressing the button as many times as possible and get a good picture then to plan out the shot to get a great photo?

Since I’m known to be found crawling on my hands and knees and through mud, or wading out into a pond or doing something crazy to get the shot, I would hope that I will be able to go for the great shot rather then a good one. This camera is also more for an experiment and I plan to get another digital camera within 6 months or so, I am hoping to get the Nikon D300 or the Nikon D3 which come out in November. The d40x is going to become a frankencamera of sorts as it will be taken apart, modified and put back together sans warranty. I plan on doing that as soon as possible.

I added my latest attempt at art on the paint splatters page. It might be considered NSFW in some workplaces, but only slightly.

I had to fix the link to the paint splatters page. one of them was a broken link. If you had trouble with the link check it again. Some of the other links under Bakerstreet are not working right now, i’ll try to get those working again soon.

Dilapidated building on TG Lee farms land in InfraRed.

So I have a week off from work, I have to take the time or I lose it at the end of the year. I hope to be able to work on projects that I have been putting off. I want to get some artwork done and maybe get some writing in there, crank out some t-shirt designs to sell, work on my photography, develop some film. So what did I work on today? What project did I start? What was the grand total of what I did today? Nothing! Bummer! The rest of the week isn’t looking very good for getting stuff done either. Tomorrow is Halloween so I have to set things up to scare the crap out of little children! Wednesday I have to go hit the after Halloween sales, Thursday I have my daughter after school. Doesn’t really leave much time for the rest does it? Oh well, at least I’m not at work.

I finished the shooting script for Justice, it still needs to be edited and maybe some small tweaks but not much, it is 14 pages so it should be about 15 to 20 minutes total. I hope to shoot it during my vacation at the end of October. If anyone out there wants to help out whether in front or behind the camera, that would be nice, you’ll get your name in the credits for your efforts.