A Conversation with Nadav Kander - Conscientious

 

NK: I think it’s a universal Western truth that we have a real problem thinking any lower than our head into how we feel about things. I think when we are always trying to make our brain do the work and separate a picture into why I like it or why I don’t and what are the reasons for it, it’s often as simple as that it touches me in an emotional place, in a place inside me that responds to this for whatever reason. Maybe the way I was brought up, maybe the way my parents were brought up. Who knows how far these things go? We all have a problem in knowing that.

Good art works on that level very, very well. Think of Rothko as an excellent example. There’s almost no information on the canvas, and people can sit in front of them for hours, with very, very strong feelings. So composition in itself and weight of composition and colour can give you very strong connections to you and your past. I think that probably explains it.

 

Solitude, sweet solitude.

"But an emerging body of research is suggesting that spending time alone, if done right, can be good for us — that certain tasks and thought processes are best carried out without anyone else around, and that even the most socially motivated among us should regularly be taking time to ourselves if we want to have fully developed personalities, and be capable of focus and creative thinking. There is even research to suggest that blocking off enough alone time is an important component of a well-functioning social life — that if we want to get the most out of the time we spend with people, we should make sure we’re spending enough of it away from them. Just as regular exercise and healthy eating make our minds and bodies work better, solitude experts say, so can being alone.

One ongoing Harvard study indicates that people form more lasting and accurate memories if they believe they’re experiencing something alone. Another indicates that a certain amount of solitude can make a person more capable of empathy towards others. And while no one would dispute that too much isolation early in life can be unhealthy, a certain amount of solitude has been shown to help teenagers improve their moods and earn good grades in school."

-I personally need a large amount of alone time.

Sunrise

Here is a shot of our lovely garden shed filled with all sorts of wood and dirt.  The morning light hitting it with the green and reds and whites and blacks.... had to get a shot.  This could be a lot of fun to blur the crap out of and make a color field print of.

Wysteria is wild and crazy stuff.  I am training this bunch to run down the length of our fence.  It follows those "T" bars I make out of cedar. I was messing around and made this sepia toned image and really enjoyed it as this graphic piece.

In Memorium

 

Just a reminder that even death brings about life and there is a beauty in that.  Need some people to remember that right now.

To use a finite lifetime to worry and grieve over the chaos of the world is like weeping into a river to increase its water in fear of it drying up.

-Lao_tzu

translated by Thomas Cleary

Hawaii Ridge Hike

 

Just another iPhone snap from our recent trip to Hawaii.  Drinking my coffee in the gray Portland rain this morning made me review a few of these.

Another day in the studio

 

Why yes, I am shooting a disembodied leg in front of  green screen.  What, you don't see all the practical uses of this?  Huh... well... I dunno what to tell you then.

High speed tests with sound triggers

 

Wanted to try out some high speed tests using a sound trigger to pop the strobes and these are the test files.  Last one is a screen grab from 100% which shows that there is no blur at all going on in those drops.  I was really wailing on the cymbal as well.  Fun stuff.

P.S.A.

Wanted to get some practice in today since it's slow.  Used a Beauty dish and one back strobe on the white table.  The full shot of the knife looks better, but does not work as well conceptually. So I get to show off my lighting less, oh well.  The text is just a general rule of thumb.

 

Yee Rustic Circa 2001

Been messing around with Painter some more and worked up something from the Yee Rustic that I took back in 2001.

 

Makena State Park snap

Just got back from a life nourishing vacation and here is one of my iPhone snaps from the trip. The camera on that sure is a lot of fun now a days. Hawaii if a pretty amazing place. More pics to come soon.

Hibernation

Winter rolls on here at pixelrust and slowly I am getting out of my winter funk / work busy period. Starting to feel the creative itch again. Set up a new bay for table top shooting so I no longer have to break it down to shoot green screen work related stuff. That means I have an area I can leave up and tinker with without work getting in the way. Excited about that. One of the things I always wanted was a table top zone I could just build things in. Here is something from almost 20 years ago I dug up while upgrading to Lightroom 3.

So fun stuff like this is in order I think. Don't have as much crap laying around as I did back then though... lol!