Further notes on manic-expression.

One of the things that triggered this frenzy of photography was that when I got out The Populist to take a photo with the new understudies, I discovered I had reloaded it right after our trip last fall. This camera has been the faithful enabler of my mania for 12 years.

I've recently heard criticism of digital photographers taking numerous variations of a scene without knowing what they really wanted and I didn't want to do that. Nor did I want to just redo photographs I've done before, but there are some things you just come back to. Here's Buddha's corner with that unusual angle trick to make it a little distinctive.

Sunbeams in the living room are another continuing theme.

The overhead angle thing again.

A sunbeam and a high angle.

Remember pictorialism? Haven't I seen an Autochrome of this?

Mickey has been casting spells on top of my computer in one basement or another for two decades. At Halloween he got to perform on top the piano and now has the main stage on the mantlepiece. Weird how the pendulum is well rendered in the center and barely there at it's extreme positions. I expected it to be a continuous streak from one side to other. Looks like it shakes the clock face a little.

There's some crazy pinhole stuff going on here. The door frames make it look like the camera is tilted up a little but otherwise level. However, the curve of the top of the mirror and the angle of the top of the dresser are a little weird.

Sarah got a new soap dispenser which I thought played well with the light.

She also just put some new little succulents on the window sill.

I made bread one day and it had this huge blister on the top. This frame was also unintentionally, very briefly double exposed which picked up just some highlights. It sort of puts dynamic sparkles on the loaf. Does this remind anyone else of a scene in Alien?

One morning I got to the Museum early and the door wasn't unlocked yet, so I took the opportunity to feed the obsession.

The room referred to as the library is lined with display cases but is otherwise empty. It's where they set up for speakers and special events.  It always frustrates me because, in order to photograph these windows, there's no place to put a desktop tripod except the floor. In my maniacal state, I realized that standing on tiptoe I could just reach the top of the cases to put my tripod up there. My supervisor at the Museum just retired. This was the first day that it was her replacement's turn to open the museum. After waiting for the gift shop operator to arrive, as she walked back into the museum, she looked down the hall and saw this weird old guy stretching to reach the top of the display case! I had to explain what I was doing and apologize for startling her.

Since the cat was out of the bag, I set the camera on the mantlepiece in the parlor down the hall, right in front of her.

I try to use the stairs instead of taking elevators. This is the staff-only third floor landing in the back of the Museum.

It snowed again.

I shovel a path back to the compost barrel and the bunnies use it to traverse the back yard. As I opened the shutter, just by chance a narrow sunbeam fell right on top the closest track and really fouled up the exposure.  After burning and dodging to regain highlight and shadow detail, it left this odd but interesting color shift on the sides of the trench.

The hydrangea exploding out of the garage with another random sunbeam brightening the middle of the frame.

A roof over the arbor.

There's always a danger with manic-expression that you're going to do something that you've never done before that might be philosophically unsettling.

That's another snow picture that kept getting red and blue casts to the shadows and highlights that I couldn't get to look natural so I just converted it to grey scale. Did you notice right away?

We went to visit Laura and Gene in Eau Claire. I took a full size tripod, but when I tried to take pictures of morning sunbeams in their house, I couldn't find the quick release adapter! (It was in the pocket in my blue jeans.) The desktop tripod was just right for Arthur.

Back home, playing with light. There's a lot of refraction going on to make this crystal candelabra visible.

Variable transmission of light though fabric, with sunbeam.

Another sunbeam. If you're a cat, this is a good place to sit to watch what's going up and down the neighbor's driveway.

In case anybody's been counting, that's 23 images. The clicker on The Populist is the most reliable and loud example I've ever made. Not wasting film makes these manic episodes much less nerve wracking. Editing however, is problematic with manic-expression.

When this all started the voices in my head told me I had to go through the whole rotation of 35mm populists. Hopefully Neville will bring some closure.