Posts tagged mirrors

write a Shakespearean sonnet (you’re my offspring, i’ve probably overloaded you on literature and poetry by the time you’re old enough to even think about having interpersonal relationships with people of the opposite or same sex[i won’t judge, ask your a-pe]) and think about what writing a sonnet entails. now, look at it in terms of relationships.

fourteen lines - use what you have wisely, be it time, chances or opportunities you could have taken because that’s all you’re going to get. don’t regret anything you’ve done if you did it for the right reasons BUT i don’t want you to regret not taking initiative and taking a chance on someone you feel a connection to.

rhyme structure - this isn’t one of those modernist (some people don’t get what post-modernist is) free-verse-spoken-word performance art poems where you get whatever you want when you want it. it’s important to understand that. life, and love has to follow some type of order. this will also teach you to work with what you have, not what you think is perfect. nothing/no one is perfect, get with the program and do your best because the pedestal is going to fall someday.

three quatrains, one couplet - temper yourself, try not to go all in at the start. i may sound like a cynical old man who just wants to ruin your fun but trust me, i’ve been there. present yourself gradually, you don’t want to scare the object of your affection off nor do you want to leave nothing to yourself because that’s a serious commitment. it’s not that i think that you’re not ready, i just don’t want to see you hurt.

thematic progression of the quatrains into the couplet - you can’t stay stagnant with what you have. every sonnet has a beginning, a middle and an end. sometimes it doesn’t end, it just changes into something else. i don’t want you to stick with a bad relationship because it’s what you have and you’re afraid of striking out on your own. i also wouldn’t want you to just stay at the level of boyfriend/girlfriend when you have something good. life is growth and i would want you to live.

iambic pentameter - love, much like life is made up of rhythms. there will ALWAYS be ups and downs, moments of calm followed by moments of stress. it’s the norm, embrace it. yes, i know that it sucks but that’s how it is. i also want you to know that it eventually gets better, so don’t worry too much.

ten syllables - you have limits and constraints so work WITH them rather than against them. in the same way that ten syllables forces you to choose the best way to put a poem in a limited frame i want you to not lose hope if i don’t want to lend you the car or let you use the driver past his regular time. learn to commute or learn to drive, use the setbacks to grow.

you can bend the rules, for the right reasons - just like i’ve said before, i don’t want you to regret anything you’ve done as long as it’s for the right reasons. explain yourself and i’ll never blame you, just know that i’ve got your back. this doesn’t mean that you can just elope, i WILL hunt you down.

sadly, their father will always be better than they are. it’s not because the dads are older, it’s not because their father’s model of DSLR will be better than theirs. it’s simply because most of this generation’s fathers went through film.

i believe that wanting to get things done and getting them done right as early as possible is something my father has in him. he didn’t take life’s crap at face value, he worked past them. he had crappy gear but he paid good money for an excellent lens he took everywhere and shot with. he never said that he could fix things in Photoshop, he also never wanted to do photography commercially but he knew his shit and took good photographs that he PRINTED.

nobody prints their photos anymore. correction, no one prints out their photos for memories anymore. i used to take photos of travels and experiences, i used to print them out for myself. i don’t do that anymore. maybe i should.

my father taught me photography with his old camera, but i think the more important thing he taught me with his camera was to always read the instruction manual and never let your camera and talent go to waste by not using them. now all i want to do is find him a Rokkor 50mm f/1.4 to fit back on his old Minolta SLR even though he doesn’t need it anymore.

my father shoots with a Canon G5, it’s not top of the line but it does the job, same as my dad. he’s not the fastest, tallest (i’m taller than he is) or the smartest, but he’s the one i have with me. in the same way that the best camera is the one you have with you he’s been the best father for me.

i’m apprehensive because i’m going back to “school” again by next week and fashion photography isn’t a joke. i think i have to be far more serious now. i’m not ashamed to say that i’m afraid simply because i know that my father faced his own fears.

this is what they think of me. i did not write ANY of this.

“SIR. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN. You’ve been muy absent from Tumblr until about a day ago. I love seeing your photographs on my dash because it’s like looking at a snippet of a whole different world - international photography is amazing. I know you’ve had problems with the people in your past, and I sincerely hope that you don’t let past pains prevent you from falling in love or building strong friendships. You can’t just wander through the world as a ghost - interaction makes it all worthwhile. You’re really interesting to talk to (especially about SYTYCD hahaha) and have amazing scifi tastes :DDD”

“Half a world away and you still manage to put a smile on my face. We don’t talk as often (mainly because you’re like, what… 12 hours ahead of me? LOL) but I really wish we did.”

I’m a fairly recent convert to using digital (I started 2nd quarter of 2008) and I still shoot film. Why? Not only does it feel more “organic” when I shoot film but I find that it challenges me more while curtailing my being “trigger-happy” (so I won’t be the douchebag taking photos of his toes while there are far more interesting things to photograph in the general vicinity) and forces me to be patient.

You’re right, it’s NEVER about the camera or the gear or the lens. I think that when it becomes all about the gear the photographer disappears. Ken Rockwell wrote an interesting article about signatures, he wrote that even though two people could share the same pen while writing their signatures their signatures still remain their own. He opined that the same goes for people and cameras, the camera may be able to make your job easier or more streamlined but the photograph goes down to YOU rather than the camera (which is probably why I hate cameras that add effects like HDR in-camera but that’s a discussion for another day). It also means that no matter what camera you use, it’s YOUR style that will always shine through. Using a Leica does not make you HCB in the same way that using a P&S with a white wall as your background does not make you Terry Richardson (contrary to popular belief)

 In the end, it’s like you said, it’s about the light and your subject BUT I want to add that it’s also about your passion. The examples you gave about people who use P&S cameras, camera phones and wouldn’t have come to pass had these people not had the passion to go through with their photography the way they did.

P.S. Heh, I think the reason why you’re going to end up with a Leica is that while you appreciate the Russkie camera’s never-say-die attitude and sheer “in soviet Russia, the camera outlives YOU” hardiness, the same could be said of a Leica with the added bonus of having a precise machine that does a better job of doing what a Rick Astley song says than a mere human.

Yet another TL;DR ask but what the hell, it’s how I roll.

take a cue from one of the most iconic lines in Science Fiction.

trying implies not doing.

i’m not saying that it’s bad to try. i believe that trying is better than doing nothing but you have to do SOMETHING. don’t bum around, don’t lose hope. never forget that getting up and going out and doing what you love is better than laying on your ass all day making it bigger.

do something, do anything. keep going, never give up.

can you do something that you love? keep it up. it doesn’t matter what. writing in a blog, doing odd jobs, getting shit done. it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as it’s relevant to YOU then you should keep doing it.

chin up, stiff upper lip. keep pounding on that rock until it breaks.

“when nothing seems to help, i go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and i know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
- Jacob August Riis