Strange Pulse

Nathaniel and Catherine went on a hike with me last weekend in Palos Verdes. There’s an incredible ocean view on the trail, but it was all cloudy and foggy, so I mostly took pictures of flowers and the kids.

I took a lot of shots of the same thing, one in color and one in B&W. Let’s see which is better.

I’m not sure on this one. But I think I’m leaning towards black and white.

Here’s Nathaniel:

I wish I had a stronger zoom. Even though the orange hat is cool, I think the B&W wins this one.

Cat stopped to draw a flower. B&W definitely wins this one. The light looks so much better.

Color wins. I like the pop of the yellow.

Color again, because of the pink hillside. Cute shirt huh?

I like the black and white here, although I took it second, and what she’s thinking is, “Mom you are SUCH a dork. Hurry up already.”

Some crazy old cacti were growing on one part of the trail:

I think I like the B&W better here too.

So, overall, black and white wins! Here’s some more shots that I only got in one or the other, not both.

I like weeds.

I like the dark, medium, and light tones in this one:

Here’s a similar shot with Nathaniel and Catherine both.

We had fun.

I’m pretty much down the middle of the two opposing sides and don’t really identify with either. So I guess I’m a centrist.

It’s starting to be that time again, though, when all the campaign ads come on tv (do television spots really do that much for candidates?) and all the signs start popping up everywhere.

This is the corner of our street the last time local elections were going on. Had to grab a picture of it.

Yeah! Go Oprah!

“Stimming” is a slang word for an autistic behavior, aka self-stimulatory behavior. Sounds kinda naughty, doesn’t it. But it usually manifests as hand flapping, rocking back and forth, twirling, etc. My nephew Isaak has autism, and I’ve picked up a stimming behavior from him–hand-wringing. I don’t know if I do it for the same reason Isaak does, but I do know that it feels good. Maybe it’s just because I’m on a computer all day? But I love to wring my hands. It feels good. Try it.

Autism/ADHD/Aspberger’s Syndrome runs in Daniel’s side of the family. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had Aspberger’s, but I’ve never been evaluated for it. I do definitely have some sensory integration problems, as do my kids. Daniel has ADHD. He hates all these labels, and I tend to think of them as all just different levels of sensory integration issues, myself.

Daniel has a stimming behavior that he does. It’s sort of like snapping his fingers, but what he’s doing is actually flicking his wrist and letting his index finger flap onto his other fingers in such a way that it makes a snapping sound. He does this a lot.

I think when Elijah was small, he had a stimming behavior too. He used to run around with his hands in OK signs. Here’s a picture of him doing it when he was about 3 years old:

When I was little, I used to pretend I was a bunny rabbit, and I’d put my hands up in this position:

Don’t ask me why.

I have a new co-worker who is pretty bubbly and outgoing. She brings out my goofy side. I’m usually very mellow and reserved. Well, I still am–it’s not like I get all hyper around her or anything. But I do act goofier than I normally do.

I read an intro that Orson Scott Card wrote for his book Speaker for the Dead in which he talks about how people behave differently when they’re around different people. Because the book had a large family in it, it was difficult to write because each character had to behave a little differently with every other character in order for it to feel real.

I think I tend to be more sensitive to this than a lot of people, but I don’t know. I do notice myself responding or behaving differently based on who I’m with, and what their behavior is like. There’s some people I can hang out with and just blabber away to. And other people I find myself being completely quiet around. Some people I’ll be goofy with–but that’s pretty rare.

Maybe it’s because I’m a quality time personality?

If you have a minute, go take this quiz. You’ll understand yourself better.

Doesn’t everyone realize they were never the same after Hiro left?

I always thought Hiro was super cool for not wanting to be a rock star. After leaving Soundgarden, do you know what he did? He worked in a bicycle shop in Seattle. Greg’s at Greenlake. I know this because my friend worked there with him.

He also was in a band called Truly. I’ll post a song to the radio.blog tomorrow if I don’t forget.

That’s Hiro on the right.

Black Sabbath - Tomorrow’s Dream
Madness - Tomorrow’s Dream

And, as a bonus, a cover of Sabbath by the Screaming Trees.

I love Madness. I love how they manage to sound both quirky, upbeat, and melancholy all at once.

Black Sabbath, what can I say? The godfathers of doom.

Yes, eyelashes.

The eyelashes in my family are all huge. We’ve always said we’d question the parentage of any kid born in our family that didn’t have humungous eyelashes.

When I was a kid, my best friend’s teenage sister didn’t believe mine were real. She actually tugged on them. When they didn’t come off, she wanted to see how big they’d get with mascara. So she put some on me. It made them touch my eyelids. I had a black line on my eyelids from where the mascara rubbed.

When my two nieces were very small, they got ahold of some scissors and cut off their little brother’s eyelashes. Joey must’ve been about 2. Scary, I know–terrifying. But it goes to show you just how long the eyelashes in my family can be, that they could do that and not hurt him.

Of my three kids, my oldest son Nathaniel has the most impressive eyelashes. My daughter’s are long, but they’re thinner. Nathaniel has monstrous eyelashes. My youngest has eyelashes just as long and as thick, but they’re blond on the tips so they don’t seem as long. (That comes from his dad.) It’s sad that my son and not my daughter has the thickest and longest eyelashes, but you should see him whenever he gets his haircut. Whenever it’s buzzed really short it makes his eyelashes stand out like you wouldn’t believe. I feel like they’ll knock me over if I’m standing too close to him and he blinks.

Here’s a shot of Elijah’s eyelashes I managed to capture a couple years ago. Because they’re highlighted by the sun, you can see their full length.

Here’s my daughter, with a decent view of her eyelashes:

And here’s Nathaniel, although this shot doesn’t do his eyelashes justice:

Anyway, my daughter has started wearing makeup. I don’t wear makeup, ever, because I’m lazy. We were at the drugstore this weekend, buying hair dye so she can streak her hair pink, and she asked if she could get some mascara and eyeliner. First time she’s ever asked for makeup–I’ve offered to get her some before but she was never interested. So here she is, mascara and all:

Now tell me those eyelashes aren’t insane.

Unfortunately, as we age, our eyelashes lose their thickness. Mine are still long but nothing like my kids’!

But I love it.

I’m using it as my desktop on my work computer right now. Daniel took it a few years ago, before we moved to California. He took the kids down to San Diego and stayed with a friend for a couple weeks to scout out potential companies he might want to work for, and I came down and joined them for the last week. He took this before I came down, at a fountain in Carlsbad.

There’s a lot of reasons I love this shot. One, I love Elijah’s hair color, and I loved it when he wore it long. He hasn’t done that for years–since this was taken. He keeps it buzzed short now.

Two, that thing you see in the foreground that looks like a silver rod? It’s a stream of water. Isn’t that awesome?

Three, the sign in the background that says, “…and the safety of your children, please do not sit, stand or jump on any portion of the fountain.”

Sometimes I like to take pictures without looking through the viewfinder first. Usually, it’s to get a shot from a really low angle, and it’s too hard–or impossible–to lay down on the ground and frame it. And thanks to the wonders of digital photography, I can tell immediately if the picture is any good, and keep trying until I get something decent.

Sometimes, though, I’m just taking photos in stealth mode and only have one shot at it. I’ll show you what I mean at the end of the post.

I like to take pictures at the beach this way for a couple reasons. One, I’m usually sitting on a low-to-the-ground beach chair, so it’s easy to just dangle the camera and shoot. Two, I just like the way it turns out. Here’s one of my daughter Catherine last year:

And here’s one I took of Elijah trying to bury himself in sand (it’s not as easy as you’d think):

The depth of field isn’t perfect on this next one–Elijah is a little bit blurry, and the sand in the middle is really sharp. But I still like the effect.

You can tell I took this one while standing up, the camera isn’t that close to the ground (and I’d be in water if I was sitting down):

This one is probably my favorite from the beach:

I like how the footprints in the sand lead your eye up the frame to where the kids are sitting. And I’m not really sure why, but I like that they’re out of focus.

I also take blind shots at shows. Mostly because the lighting is very low and I get better results if I have something to lean the camera against–like a monitor, or the stage floor. But mostly because I like the interesting angles.

Three Inches of Blood

The Warlocks

Fu Manchu

Pelican

High on Fire

Acid King

High on Fire

Bottom

Damien Jurado

Just a few more, pictures I’ve taken in “stealth mode”–where I didn’t want the subject to know I was taking the picture. Usually, I do this while walking down the street, and I don’t have time to set up the shot at all, so I either have to quickly guess what the aperature setting should be, or I just snap it without adjusting anything and see if it comes out.

I like the lines in that one.

That last one isn’t that great, but for some reason I like it.

Here’s one I took of Cat at the pier:

Two of my current favorite artists.

My youngest son Elijah introduced me to Andy Goldsworthy. He came home one day from school when he was about 8 or 9 and asked, “Can we look at andygoldsworthy.com?” Turns out there wasn’t an andygoldsworthy.com, but we found some of his artwork online, and Elijah filled me in on him.

He’s a Scottish artist who works in found objects. Ice, wood, stone, leaves…He finds things, molds them into interesting shapes, patterns, etc, takes a picture, and then leaves it where it is (outdoors) for it to be assimilated back into nature.

Just hearing about it, I would think it’s lame hippy-dippy stuff. But it’s not, it’s incredible.

There’s a documentary out on DVD about his work. It shows him working on his farm in Scotland, as well as some installations he does at museums and parks. I took Elijah to see it at a theater when it came out, he actually stayed awake the entire time and enjoyed it. I got him one of Andy’s books for his birthday one year. I need to get his other books.

Brandon Bird I heard about via Kulturblog.com. He’s an artist who does paintings of movie stars and tv actors in weird settings. It’s really pretty awesome, the crazy stuff he comes up with. Here’s his website:

http://www.brandonbird.com/

Some of my faves:

Two Warriors Come Out of the Sky

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

The Anguish

Good stuff! And this post was inspired by Thurbs post over here.

Got any artists to point me to?