Bijin Tokei

Leave it to the Japanese to come up with something this obvious, and relatively cool. It’s a website (and an iPhone app) that has 1,440 images of (somewhat) attractive Japanese women holding up a sign that tells you what time it is. One picture for every minute of the day.

Check out Bijin Tokei. It apparently means Hot Girl Clock in Nippon. Many of the girls have their full personal data listed, including measurements and blood type. Odd.

Meet Miss 18.33:

There are so many obvious variations possible to this kind of clock… it becomes kind of fun. Fine Art nudes, pictures of cakes, celebrity mug-shots with that little ID Number…  It’s like a modern day calendar in some ways. Wish Pirrelli would come up with a version of this, I would probably get an iPhone just for that app.

Better yet would be a customizable app into which prolific photographers and other designers could simply insert their own images. It would certainly solve my Valentine’s Day problem of what to get Karen, I would create a clock for her of just ME pictures!! Oh well, jewelry and another Birkin bag, like every year… NOT.

Something borrowed, something new

I have set aside 2010 to determine how I will wrestle with my photography. I have spent the last fifteen years complaining loudly, wishing that I could pursue my art more seriously, but have not had (or made) the time to give it full consideration. This year, with some encouragement from my wife and my father, I am taking a quasi-sabbatical to shoot.

It has been fun, but I must admit I find myself on a roller-coaster ride of self assessment. I am still too nervous to consummate some of the ideas I’m working on. There is the matter of collaborators, whose time I do not wish to waste until my skills are at a level I like… yet how can my skills get there if I’m not shooting what I really want to? Also, I shoot people – models mainly, and I find it daunting to be the one directing the shoot while having the least amount of experience on the set.

There are so many moving parts to this, and within the first few weeks I have already made the decision to go back to a style I know, shooting with available light. I want to get my studio lighting skills up to speed, but I don’t want to stop the creative process in favor of yet another technical aspect that ultimately yields no reward, other than being a tool in my box. I continue to shoot with lights, and am beginning to include them in the creative process, but it is still unnatural and stilted.

Even harder is the realization that I enjoy shooting, but the post-processing is incredibly time consuming. On top of that, a lot of the photographers I admire have a very strong vision, which relies on equal parts photography and image editing. A unique look is often a result of retouching as much as it is the initial capture.

The hardest part may be accepting the delta between the vision and the reality. Imagine having played the trumpet since high-school, and after 25 years you decide to take some time and join your buddies in a little jazz quintet. You’re gonna play at a friend’s bar once a week, and hopefully get booked for the occasional gig. Well, after years of listening to Miles Davis, every note coming out of your horn sounds like a stuck garage door, not an expression of unspeakable cool… All your friends love what you’re playing, but the internal critic – and those who play jazz themselves – see a lot of room for improvement.

Anyway, I know my genre, but I think I’ve been looking at too many masters. I’ve been trying to recreate shots and ideas from photographers whom I admire, but I will need to go my own way soon. I must remember that I am neither the dwarf of my fears, nor the giant of my dreams, and push on. Considering I’m two weeks into my first year, I am pleased with what I’m learning.

I will post a link as soon as I can get a site built. The Western Flatline is playing host to an occasional image, and Flickr is a dumping ground… but it’s better than an unviewed shoe-box full of prints.

Delirious and overwhelmed

I am incredibly tired of the cold, the gloom, the grey. The weather should be irrelevant, but it is impossible to ignore. It seems to sap the energy out of everything. We’re three days into spring, but it doesn’t feel that way.

Today is almost feverish. There is bright sunlight followed by flurries of snow, gelatinous wet hail, and finally ecstatic forest winds that smells like pine trees. Rinse, wash, repeat every twelve minutes.

Yesterday I stood in the book store on Savigny Platz looking for a gift for my friend Jessica. I was also hoping to find a book to inspire me… I’m taking a fun and new direction in my photography, but everything I looked at was either contrived and boring, or intimidatingly good and wonderfully original. The amount of work being published is overwhelming, and it makes me wonder what is left that hasn’t been done before… and whether the very question is proof of my limited creativity.

But I’m having fun, and it is a hobby. That means I can enjoy the process, and not worry solely about the final result.

The Rollercoaster

Yes, this blog is still alive, and No, I did not fall down a well (unless you consider time spent on Facebook). I’ve just been insanely busy watching the decline of Western civilization unfold on my computer monitor…

I am out of pithy comments about the financial crisis, but I found this image in my archives, and I’m posting it as a metaphor.

More soon, I promise!

Other People’s Images

There’s a couple of sites that I visit daily. It is hard to explain why, because I can’t say that I “learn” something there. Nonetheless I feel compelled to spend a little time there everyday, just to catch up on the newest posts. One example is FFFFound!, an image blog where members re-post interesting images found across the internet.

I scour these sites for the same reason I shower every day, sometimes twice. I don’t feel complete otherwise, and I need to immerse myself, however briefly, in that kind of beauty. I feel better afterward. I’ve occasionally posted odd images or pieces of art on this blog, and chances are I found them on one of these sites.

But recently I found an image that took my breath away. I had a visceral response to it. I can’t explain it, but I am certain most people won’t share how I feel; some things are just too personal. Maybe this triggers something from a previous life, or aggregates archetypes into a melange of hope and desire. I don’t know who these people are, but it seems like a perfect moment, captured as a self-portrait. At this age I know the difference between youthful love and the true love that comes later in life… but I remember the invincibility of Sunday morning in bed, with the rest of the world beyond the window.

So even though it feels like I’m invading an extremely personal moment, I like looking at it… and decided to share it with you.

I wish them all the luck in this world.