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This blog will have thoughts, observations, photography (normally by me) and whatever else pops up in my head

Geisha: I know, I have been absent for forever! I thought the least I could do is show one of my most recent photo shoots. We went with a 'geisha' theme, although not strictly traditional. I saw a great set of very tight portrait closeups on flickr and decided to give the photographs I presented from this set that same feel. I hope you enjoy!

Brian

Tags: photography, portraits, geisha

Tuesday November 11, 2008 - 12:41am (EST) Permanent Link | 5 Comments
Some summer music...: I love this quirky Canadian trio - The Be Good Tanyas. Their music has pop, bluegrass, blues, acoustic, country, folk and many other undertones. I just thought I would put something lighthearted up as we enjoy summer, which will leave us all too soon...

Thursday August 7, 2008 - 02:51am (EDT) Permanent Link | 9 Comments
"Bobby": Today I saw the last half of a terrific movie "Bobby" that I have meant to blog on, but never got around to it. It deals with events on the day of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination. The movie uses archival footage and audio instead of having an actor try to play Bobby Kennedy. Mainly the story focuses on the people at the Ambassador Hotel that day, their hopes and dreams and what an RFK presidency would have meant to them. Hearing his words, it is hard to imagine how the political dialogue of the past decade has sunk so low. When I first saw this, it was maybe a year or two before our current primaries and upcoming presidential race. Hearing "Bobby" Kennedy's thoughts and his articulate manner of expressing them made me embarrassed at how our society in this decade has devolved since that time!

The video I found features the soundtrack from the movie along with Bobby Kennedy's actual speech given on April 5, 1968 at the City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio. In it he is addressing the fractures in American's relationships with each other, but I think it equally applies to our relationship with the world and is equally powerful today!

The feeling of being in the presence of greatness is the only way I can describe my feelings toward the thoughts expressed here. In real life, RFK's daughter, Kathleen was the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Maryland several years back and I had the chance to hear her speak (at a Martin Luther King celebration our university has annually) and shake her hand. Her topic was her father's relationship with Dr. King and how it's evolution could be used as an example for government and civic leaders to work toward common goals. The feeling of listening to someone who was a witness to history is quite powerful and I have been lucky enough to hear Ossie Davis, Maya Angelou and the Rev. Billy Kyles (the man who convinced Dr. King to come to Memphis to help support the striking sanitation workers and one of two men who spent the last hour of Dr. King's life along with Rev. Ralph Abernathy in his room at the Lorraine Motel and were on the balcony with King when the assassination took place) speak. Each one of these amazing people left me with this same feeling of awe of listening and being in the presence of true greatness.

Sunday July 20, 2008 - 02:25am (EDT) Permanent Link | 3 Comments
What I've Been Up To... July 17, 2008: Hi everyone!

I have been out singing like crazy the past few weeks (usually I only try to sing 3 times a month - it has been 4 times in the last two weekends with another performance coming up on Friday!) I am looking forward to getting some of my weekend time back, but with all the summer gas increases, utility increases, etc. I have to say the extra cash is nice right about now!

Anyway, I thought I would share a bit of what I have been up to, listening to, reading, etc. in the past few weeks. I hope you find something you enjoy here! --B.

What I am listening to:

The 'Fleet Foxes' are the latest band I heard and had to have in my CD collection!
As for trying to describe their music, I will quote one of the members of the band who gives a good description of the eclectic mix!

"We aim to be adventurous and true to ourselves and to enjoy our time together—the music we make is a reflection of our instincts. To me, the most enjoyable thing in the world is to sing harmony with people, so we do that a bunch. We love acoustic guitars, electric guitars, big rolling tom drums, mandolins, dulcimers, bass guitars, bass pedals, organs, pianos, kotos, and most of all harmony and melody. We’ve succeeded for ourselves if we’ve made a song where every instrument is doing something interesting and melodic. We try to draw from the traditions of folk music, pop, choral music and gospel, baroque psychedelic, sacred harp singing, West Coast music, traditional music from Ireland to Japan, and film scores, and are inspired by the music of our friends and contemporaries in the Seattle music family.”

Personally, I am just happy to see something new (aside from grunge) coming from the Seattle music scene! ;-) Here is their link at their record company: http://www.subpop.com/artists/fleet_foxes

Tags: me, music, photography, movies

Thursday July 17, 2008 - 03:16am (EDT) Permanent Link | 8 Comments
A 'trying to blog here' blog - a bit more on the flapper photos...: One of my friends told me that things were getting better here and I was not allowed to leave, so I thought, ok, I will see if I can post a blog and if it comes up within 5 tries, I will keep adding my blogs here through the transition. :-)

That said, I put a link to my recent photoshoot with Nicole - where I was examining old Hollywood Studio glamour portraits from the 1920's through the 1940's. I love the dramatic lighting, although its harshness has to be tamed or you can really make a beautiful model look bad! Thankfully, Nicole loves the Roaring 20's "Flapper" look, so we set out to combine these two elements.

The actual lighting used here is more toward the very late 20's and through the 1930's. I had bought several reference books as well as downloaded a few hundred photos to study the expressions the actresses would make as well as the lighting the photographers used. Some of the expressions the "starlets" made were so bold and dramatic! Thankfully Nicole is great with facial expressions, so we set out with Clara Bow, Louise Brooks and just a bit of Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow in mind. I left a book open where we both could see with a dramatic portrait of Clara Bow (or was it Louise Brooks?) open for inspiration and the results are here! I hope you enjoy and if you already visited the set on multiply, thanks for taking another look!

Brian

PS - I think I have a couple different ones here, plus these are all the Black & White version.
PPS - If you want to look at some of the original photos I was examining, this site has a nice collection: http://www.moviemaidens.com/

I think this is my favorite, although it changes each time I look at the set! ;-)

She is so good with being expressive! :-)

The highlights in the hair come out quite dramatically here.

This is one of those dramatic looks that make the photos so intriguing that I wanted to study the style and feel.

Love this expression!

Also - a quick update on this photo... Nicole entered it into a contest for a trade magazine called Supermodels Unlimited and she won the "Headshot" category for June! She gets a full page spread as an "up and coming model" and I get published! :-) Here is the link to the magazine's site... http://supermodelsoftheuniverse.com/winners.php

Since I decided one of my goals for the year was to be published, I am thrilled! I didn't expect it to come so soon either!

Tags: photography, flapper, 1920s, glamour, hollywood

Tuesday July 1, 2008 - 10:32pm (EDT) Permanent Link | 7 Comments