AgainstTheWind

In Tulsa

Mother's been having no end of troubles with her computer. She bought a new keyboard, and now says the cursor still freezes and won't respond to her mouse. I've found it a bit sticky, but she says, just wait... it's going to stick. I'm waiting.

I drove up here today. After I left the range of the Baton Rouge NPR station with the Saturday morning garden show, I plugged my I-pod in my ears. I've listened all day to the stuff I downloaded in a few seconds before departing. What a marvel.

The classes from College of Dupage on the history of photography got me thinking some more about Photoshopping images. Jeff Curto, the professor seems to be very interested in the way the technology drives the techniques. One point he emphasized by repetition is the idea that photographers and the audience have danced a pas de deux of mutual delusion about how photography represents something "real." Photographers have been altering photos as soon has they had emulsions to wipe off of plates.

I have been thinking about a series of shots that I saw in View Camera magazine, that a photographer made of models with a slow big camera. The time that he needed to get the shot set up was also the time that the model needed to drop the mask that we try to wear before the lens of a camera. No one would ever buy them as "glamour shots," but they are wonderful. I tried to take a similar photo of Quentin, the only model I've had for such an experiment. My film was loaded backward. Not a very good photo!

Last night I was reading again from "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. Maybe that got me in the mood to think of working harder on my writing, photography and quilting. We'll see when I get home.

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