Bored today, so plundering the archives. Revisiting this picture, I had a flurry of indecision about framing and perspective from the negatives I made of this, so finally tried cropping the crap out of them just for the minor spectacle of it. This reminded me of the real-time spectacle of moving my tripod a dozen times while struggling to remain objective in the mounting frustration. Of course, there’s no sustainable interest in a spectacle without a little bloodletting. Good thing I had the place to myself.
Brings to mind the quote by John Szarkowski- Photography is a contest between a photographer and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing. The contest can be held anywhere.
Rialto for a short day, nicotine withdrawals. 1200th day either smoking or quitting, such a massive idiot.
Kept seeing nothing but insects in the margins. Actually, I am typically fighting a tripod somewhere in the background, as if succumbing to some millipedal skirmish. Not therapeutic or regenerative in the least.
No ocean view from here, but the sounds do undulate like my interest levels, and drown out the whimpers besides.
I remember setting up to take this picture and getting highly annoyed at all the useless crap in my bag. I have a habit of carrying extra stuff because of freakish events that rarely repeat. Like extra darkslides- I had a gust once grab a darkslide from my hand mid-exposure and fling it off a bluff and out to sea. I also carry too many flashlights/headlamps/batteries due to coming down a skid trail once in the dark- almost broke both ankles, could not see fuckall. I also carry a pair of ANSI Z87 safety glasses since I once skewered a tear duct on a spruce limb and nearly lobotomized myself. I also have an ever-burgeoning grab bag of assorted nuts, knobs, set screws, bolts and washers because once, at the far end of a 10 mile trail, I discovered that a locking knob from a tripod clamp had rattled free and disappeared, rendering the tripod useless. Now, I’m prepared to loose exactly one piece of hardware from every piece of equipment I’m carrying.
Most of this qualifies as reactive rather than pre-emptive. Of course, none of this crap has ever proven remotely useful. I lost a darkslide once, 6 years ago. Is it worth being prepared for it to happen again? I’ve started to categorize such superfluous crap as Preparation H, as in I may eventually get another hemorrhoid, but must I keep carrying these suppositories until then?