S.R. Wild: Artist and Graphic Designer

The Sky was Burning

I walked down to the waterfront this evening… wait, how many posts have I written that begin like that? Too many. Quite often, I walk down to the waterfront to sit by the water, draw, try not to think too much, and watch the sunset. I don’t photograph every sunset, nor do I post every sunset I photograph on here. However, tonight’s sunset was exceptionally beautiful. It was almost as beautiful as… I can’t say, you’d only laugh.

Ugh, I’m a bit grumpy. Today I was reminded (more than usual) of how much I miss someone, which in turn reminded me of how much of an idiot I can be.

I bought a copy of Guilt & Pleasure Magazine, which I’ve never heard of. It’s The Death Issue. Perhaps it will cheer me up.

Gleaning Joker

While most people out this evening were doing something involving alcohol, I took a long walk to think, glean, and take photographs. I mostly walked around the South End because I like the buildings there, especially at night — everything is better at night. If I were to move, I’d move to the South End.

Pictured above is the small haul I gleaned. Walking down Pine St. (I think) I saw a joker on the sidewalk, a joker in the grass, an ace of hearts in the dirt, two jokers further up, and so on until I picked up five jokers and three aces. It’s appropriate I should find these because I’ve been thinking about cards: whether something is or isn’t in the cards and when I had my cards read a few months ago everything I was told is turning out to be true. In regards to the latter, I don’t usually believe in such things. A few years ago a Wiccan read my palm and what she said would happen really did happen. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky. Besides, I don’t want to know my future, I prefer to be surprised.

I snapped photos too.

Shots in the Dark

I’ve been experimenting with taking long exposure photographs at night. Not surprising, I’m not smart enough to remember my tripod when I go on my evening meanderings, so I’m at the mercy of whatever stationary object I can find: cars, curbs, sleeping vagrants, my stone-cold soul, etc.

If you’d like to see better examples, check out The Long Exposure Flickr Pool.

Workroom Panorama

When I returned home from work yesterday, I took a panorama with my digital image capturing device from the doorway of my workroom (it moved to a new, undisclosed location with a better view, more natural light, and a less cave-like feel). This time I went crazy and snapped fifteen shots! Unfortunately, I was rushed because the exposure time was eight seconds long and I was quickly losing light. Plus, I was doing about eight other things at the same time.

Fritz, my poor salvaged computer, moaned as he assembled the images. I worried he was going to overheat and collapse from the stress, but the little guy completed his mission. The final assembled image was about 7 by 4 feet! Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, that’s over 90 megapixels!

The final result isn’t very good: the composition is horrible, the lighting is bad, and the focal point is an uninteresting empty office chair. Also, do to the position of the camera relative to the desk, it looks like photograph is split down the middle. However, this is only my second attempt at this — I’m hoping to fail better next time. Perhaps I should research this technique instead of just ignorantly diving in.

Whenever I try something new, I always fail numerous times before I get something decent and there are many more attempts after that before I get something I’m moderately happy with. I’m very stubborn, so I refuse to give up. I’m also a perfectionist that doesn’t believe in the concept of perfection, so I try to do better than the time before. I’m very critical, especially about my own work. I’m glad I’m not confident in my abilities because studies have shown that people who are, do things badly.¹

I have a glorious three-day weekend. Along with tackling the enormous pile of things I need to do, I plan on taking a few panoramas. I’d really like to take one of someone’s body. If anyone out there, who can lie very still (nudity is not required), is interested, please contact me.

¹ I mentioned and link to a couple interesting articles about this and how messy people are more creative in my report Self-Deprecating Slobs Rule from February of 2007.

Norman's Ridge Panorama

Sunday, on my way back to Vermont, I stopped at my parents’ house to pick up some of my crap (I have crap everywhere, even in places I don’t know), walk around the woods, and use the facilities (aka the woods).

While I was there I went up to Norman’s Ridge, which is behind my parents’ house. This is one of my favorite places on earth. The view is spectacular. Photographs or words don’t do it justice. It’s one of the only places in the Adirondacks that one can get a 360° view (the photo above is only the eastern view) without climbing a mountain. The best time to go up there is at night. There isn’t any light pollution so you can see the stars very clearly — you feel like you’re in the sky. It’s amazing.

The photograph above is my first attempt at creating a panorama. I took six photographs and merged them in Photoshop. It’s not the greatest but I learned a few things and I’ll definitely be doing more of these.

Random Photographs

I don’t have much time these days, so I’m just going to post images for awhile. Images are more fun anyway.

The Death of Instant Photographic Gratification

Last week, Polaroid announced they are going to stop making instant film once they manufacture enough to last through 2009. I better stock up for my Visitor Polaroid Project.

I read about it this morning in an article in Seven Days about a Vermont photographer’s book and exhibit on photobooths. I’ve written about my love for photobooths on this blog before, so I was excited to read this article. I’d like to get a copy of the book, American Photobooth and I’m definitely going to check out the exhibit at the Pine Street Art Works this weekend.

Update

I purchased a copy of American Photobooth this evening. Only one copy was left and it was softcover — S.R. Wild wins! Yes, I would’ve preferred to buy from an independent bookstore, but I had a coupon and I’m poor these days.

I haven’t looked at it yet. I’m looking forward to cracking it open before I go to sleep tonight. Hopefully I won’t fall asleep in my studio at 4 o’clock in the morning like last Friday. I’m also looking forward to seeing the exhibit at Pine Street Art Works tomorrow. If anyone is interested in joining me, don’t hesitate to contact me. Of course, anyone reading this is too far away.

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