after popping into big shark yesterday, adam and i wandered across the street to see the holga exhibit at the regional arts commission. if you're not familiar with the holga, it's a cheap (used to be only 13 buckaroos) plastic medium format camera that has a strong fine art cult following. results are completely unpredictable, slightly eery and often ethereal. to get any results at all often requires solid duct-taping skills. i kid you not.
holgas have become trendy in the last couple of years. they even sell them at urban outfitters. but don't waste your money there. they are half as expensive at b&h photo, our go-to source for gear.
go check out the exhibit. it's well worth the entry fee (nada).
much to adam's chagrin, lord (buddha-allah-ganesh-jesus-yahweh-gaia) knows i spend more time than i care to admit watching HGTV.
and you already know what a big fan i am of doing good things and especially if it benefits the 'lou.
so, that said, make sure you vote to bring HGTV's cities for change to st. louis to rehab desert storm veteran, hence j. forland's, st. louis transitional home for veterans, the windsor transitional house.
rebuilding together is one of the partners and i had the opportunity to work with them while i was completing my master's thesis in north st. louis. it's a great organization.
you can vote once a day and the winner will be announced on my b-day, march 15th.
It's too bad you can't see who's winning! I've voted a couple times and will continue to do so as long as I remember.
(01.26.09)
check out adamscottwilliams.com's fine art loveliness.
three cups of tea has been getting gobs of press lately, and rightly so. i'm sure i've posted about it before, but it is the true story of mountaineer greg mortenson, who through the organization he ultimately started, the central asia institute, has established 78 schools in pakistan and afghanistan.
the cbs sunday morning show did a piece on him earlier this month.
while reading the book, a name mentioned, scott darsney, rung a bell. i remembered meeting a photographer named scott in fiji in 2002 who had climbed mt. everest a couple of times. i kept running the name through my head and was convinced it was the same guy. i shot him an email on a lark and discovered we had met. craziness.
this was the boat i took to get to octopus resort:
and this was the island:
do you have any crazy six degrees of separation stories? (or one degree of separation. :-) )
DUDE! I totally saw this! Does it make me old to admit that I DVR CBS Sunday Morning?
(01.20.09)
adam and i saw slumdog millionaire friday night. if you haven't seen it yet, DO. the plot and cinematography are both amazing. and i totally dig the soundtrack, too. it's a pretty harsh, though real, sample of poverty in india, but with a love story twist. just go see it. my words are not doing it justice. and stay for the closing credit homage to bollywood.
it's set in mumbai, where i shot this a few years ago, driving past a slum on a business trip during my corporate past life. the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty, especially in mumbai, is hard to digest. i felt incredibly guilty staying in a four-star hotel there.
