Must Be Art Weblog

Trying to catch up on a serious backlog, I was just reading LensWork #24 (Feb-Apr 1999). In that issue is a piece called Letter To A Young Photographer by Michael A. Smith. In it, he says in all apparent seriousness,

Different cultures and centuries provide different experiences of the world. Yet there is a common thread that runs throughout all humanity. It explains why we still thrill to the music of Bach, and why we find the cave paintings so powerfully truthful, even in reproductions in art history textbooks.

He may have a point about Bach, but cave paintings? Powerfully truthful? Please.

Got up this morning to photograph the launch of a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg AFB from the new upper deck at Silver Home. When the light hits the rocket’s trail in the dark, it can be really spectacular. Conditions weren’t right for that phenomenon this morning, but we were still able to see a rocket stage burnout at 6:14am.

Here’s Michelle on the upper concrete pad after the launch had come and gone.

Here’s what we were hoping to get (Michelle’s photo from 2005):

I found myself at Balboa Park yesterday, because the museum store at MoPA was having a closing-down-for-renovation sale. It was an absolutely perfect day at the park, thanks to a warm Santa Ana wind blowing in from the desert. Besides purchasing a stack of photography books at up to 70% off, I happened upon an open rehearsal of the San Diego Youth Symphony and thoroughly enjoyed lurking at the back of the room while they worked on music for a concert on Feb 15. I even recorded a few bits of it on my iPhone, and the recordings came out surprisingly well, considering.

At the rest break in the middle of the rehearsal, I went to my car and swapped the two heavy bags of books for one heavy camera bag. After rehearsal, I wandered around the park a bit and made a few pictures. Not as many as a typical Balboa Park photo shoot. When I examined the pictures today, I discovered there was a recurring theme in most of them: they show people near the ground.

Since any photography can be turned into Art by sufficient explication, the existence of this theme is crucial to the artistic integrity of my new short subject, Near the Ground at Balboa Park.

_C9P3918, originally uploaded by Must Be Art.

This is from a photo session a few months ago.

Actually it’s just a test posting to see how posting from Flickr works.

A few new photos from a brief session (with the wrong equipment) photographing wild-ish berries along the edges of State Park Road on Palomar Mountain.

Splashblog is going off the air, so I’ve moved all the old cameraphone postings to a new site. Use the “Cameraphone Edition” link at the upper right.

Photos from my trip to Arkansas and Mississippi have been posted for a little while now:

• Allsopp Park
• Red Waddler Hog Farm
• Little Rock Riverfront

And a set of art photos has just been added:

• Greasescapes

Also don’t forget to check (or subscribe to) my Flickr photos.

The old family photos we scanned at Christmas time are now posted on my Flickr page.

After a flurry of post-processing activity, I have a few months worth of photographs now posted:

• Pismo Beach, October 2006
• Mother Goose Parade, November 2006
• First Night Austin, December 2006
• Tri-Triptych Assignment, February 2007
• Walk: Marian R. Bear Memorial Park, February 2007
• Fridgecopia, February 2007

And a new entry in the snapshot section, too:

• At First Night Austin

Fall Colors in San Diego captured on a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon.