01. Here we were and it was winter. We went on the Ferris wheel, me and the baby. It was only $10 to see the entire Niagara Falls, from the point of view of an angel, three times in a row.
02. After we checked in, the baby had a nap. I thought about people in other rooms, waiting, like me. Or not waiting. I knew I wasn’t alone even though it felt that way.
03. I fell asleep in the big bed. It wasn’t even night but I closed the blinds and turned all the lights on to make it seem as if it was. I wanted to divide my day – the Ferris wheel and after the Ferris wheel – before he showed up. My dreams were short, unfinished like the color yellow in the rain, some sort of foggy ghosts.
04. He watched me put lipstick on. He said he liked my girl hat. Only girls know how to make that hat out of a towel, that’s why I call it “the girl hat,” he said.
Continue Reading Niagara falls »
Recently RootSpeak spoke with Mike Burdon, the Englishman behind the brilliant infrared images being generated at Red Circle Photography.
RS: There seems to be a great deal of preparation involved with each of your shots. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and your process?
MB: I have been living and working in Spain for the last five years after moving from my home town in England. I have been working in photography and skydiving ever since this move. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity and time to travel after finishing my university career. Travel proved to be the catalyst for my creative side as this exposed me to amazing sights, lifestyles and cultures. It as from here that I started to learn photography and to learn how to skydive, which have resulted in being important parts of my life. Throughout my skydiving years I have been a part of projects, both personal and commercial which has given me a huge understanding of planning and preparation. It is these qualities which allow me to organize and produce the desired results.
RS: With skydiving being an obvious passion of yours, how do you go about capturing such pristine moments in what is ultimately a constantly moving, adrenaline-laden environment?
MB: Skydiving is an extreme sport in which one can generate some amazing photographs of beauty, athleticism and exhilaration. In order to capture these moments you obviously need to be proficient at the sport before you can start to carry cameras. The better that you fly your body the greater the range for taking photographs. Skydiving consists of many different disciplines, varying angles of flying, different types of formation, changing air speeds and it requires different skill sets for each of these areas. You can capture opportunistic frames as you can in ever other field of photography, however with skydiving the best frames are the product of good planning and good execution. Often training jumps are required if you are looking for a specific shot. It is far easier taking shots of skydivers that you have jumped with before because you can predict and anticipate their flying characteristics. This is important when dealing with speeds up to 200mph.
RS: There is certainly an ethereal quality to your work, and your photos of various wildlife do justice to their majesty in vivid detail. Where were these animals’ pictures taken? And did you know at the time that the post-production would ultimately create such a surreal look for their peripheral environment?
MB: My work with wildlife and the use of infrared has produced some interesting and worthwhile photographs. I am really happy with the results and will continue to photograph many more subjects. The use of infrared photography is usually contained to landscape photography. If you scan the internet then these are the type of images that you will find. However I have found the application of infrared in other areas to be far more rewarding. I want to capture shots that are ethereal and have an air of mystique to them. The photographs have been taken in various locations and countries around the world. The pictures of the elephants and game wildlife were taken on a recent trip to Africa. I knew that I would be pleased with the outcome because all the settings for the camera were done in advance, there is no actual post production work done on these photographs. In-camera ‘Photoshop’ techniques are a valuable asset to the digital photographers arsenal.
RS: What dream locations or subjects would you most like to shoot in 2011?
MB: An area in which I would like to do more work is within sport fashion. Skateboarding has a great appeal for me for taking photographs due to the nature of the sport, the interesting and varying personalities, the age and gender equalities and the diverse clothing which is available. I also love the environment that skate utilises. Skaters often have to use derelict or commercially disused areas because the funding for skate parks is not a high priority for government spending. These provide an interesting backdrop for photographs and highlight the passion these participants have for their sport.
RS: What defines a great photo to you?
MB: Every photographer and every spectator of photography have their own opinions of what makes a good frame. For me there are several factors in which I judge my photographs and other photographers work. Firstly, Do I like it? If the answer is no then I want to figure out what it is about the frame that I do not agree with, from this comes valuable lessons and feedback. If the answer is yes, then I want to identify and define what is is that I like about it. Again these reasons can inspire and develop you as a photographer. The truly great photographs are the ones which provoke a cognitive itch, something that needs scratching hours after seeing the image. These shots are remembered and hopefully generate other people to try something that may surpass the original.
Marcos Efron’s short-film Common Practice is an exercise in the conceptual beauty of who and what comprises our neighborhoods. Using a young and gifted main character, a Latin streetblock is brought to a standstill as his talents are displayed.
Care of Efron: “Common Practice was conceived as a moving tribute to music’s power to cross cultural boundaries and touch the hearts of everyone.”
Continue Reading Common Practice | A Short-film by Marcos Efron »
Based on the Pointmen character that inhabited the first two UNKLE albums, famed special FX guru John Nolan – whose previous work has included the Harry Potter franchise and Where the Wild Things Are, was commissioned to create an animatronic interpretation of the slightly disconcerting icon.
The robot itself formed part of the Daydreaming with… James Lavelle exhibition along with an accompanying video sound-tracked to the instrumental re-working of ‘The Runaway’ (Lupe’s Revenge).
Continue Reading UNKLE’S Animatronic Wonder »
Playing on the fears and expectations that many have faced in a world now preoccupied with terrorism, Paranoia is the animated short film crafted by four students as part of their senior project at India’s Thakur-Toonskool Advanced Animation Academy.
Continue Reading Paranoia »
Filmed by Almuhannad Alkadam over 5 days at Mecca, Hajj.. A Journey of Purity offers viewers a time-lapsed vantage point into the holy pilgrimage made by millions of Muslims each year.
As one of the largest annual pilgrimages in the world and as the fifth pillar of Islam, the religious duty must be carried out at least once in the lifetime of every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to make the trip. The Hajj is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, and ultimately, their submission to God.
When a pilgrim is about 10 kilometers from Mecca, he enters a state of holiness and purity known as Ihram, and adorns himself with two white sheets wrapped around the body. The individual then walks seven times, counterclockwise around the Ka’ba. After entering into the shrine, the pilgrim kisses a sacred stone in the southeast corner.
Once a believer has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, men may add the title al-Hajji to their name; hajjiyah for females.
Continue Reading Hajj.. A Journey of Purity »
In a few hours my daughter and I will make the hour and a half drive to a small Kansas town and to a modest, slightly antiquated jail to visit my only son – her only brother.
He has been housed at this particular detention center for just under three months, although he has been a resident of two others previously since his arrest in early December. So far, this one has been the worst.
I’ve groomed my outer sensibility to adjust to our visits, such as they are, in these dim and claustrophobic places, and I’ve even acquired a sense of humor about the situation to help ameliorate the raw reality that begs my attention then mocks my attempts to sustain it.
As I sit in the waiting area beneath the high front window where the visitors of the inmates must sign in and relinquish their driver’s licenses or I.D.’s, I can look through the glass partition past the bored and mechanical movements of the officer on duty and scan the black and white security monitors that canvass the various sections of the facility.
Continue Reading Sentenced, But Not Shamed »
Urban exploration, often times referred to as infiltration by those familiar with the pastime, is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of an urban area or industrial facility. And although the risks of such activities aren’t just limited to the physical dangers -cities often punish trespassers with heavy fines and even jail time- enthusiasts remains steadfast in their love for the hunt.
Care of the filmmaker behind Steve Duncan, Urban Underground (a clip examining one of these such enthusiasts):
“Steven Duncan explores the vast underground drainage system -pipes big enough to drive a truck through under Kissena Park in Queens, New York and documents an underground spring. He does a survey of other ventures up the WIlliamsburg Bridge, through Moscow’s underground rivers, into a Titan I Missile Silo and up on an abandoned LIRR line in Queens residents’ backyards. The photos he takes are for his book to be published next year. I shot Steve’s explorations in the summer of 2009. His work is an exploration of the link between the natural and man-made in the urban environment. This kind of exploration has been sharply curtailed in the past ten years because of enhanced security concerns in New York.”
Continue Reading Steve Duncan, Urban Underground »
Maybe it’s the fact that winter’s icy grip is slowly taking hold of the mainland. Or perhaps it’s the fact that the following short-film is just that good…
In either case, today we present one of the best-produced pieces of surfing ephemera that we’ve ever witnessed. Created for the 3rd Edition: Zot Movie Festival, the film was shot in a period stretching from January to July in different surf locations at Reunion island in the middle of the Indian Ocean: St Pierre, La Tortue, 03 Roches and Les Brisants.
Showcasing Maxime Huscenot, Christophe Allary, Adrien Rapp and others, this piece of eye candy might just encourage U.S. action sports filmmakers to step their own game up in 2011.
Continue Reading Press Pause »
It’s inevitable that if you’re between the ages of 18 and 40, you’ve probably coughed up the twelve dollars to witness the cultural juggernaut of 2010, The Social Network. And for as obsessed as some have been over the film, many others have been as equally studious of its soundtrack alone, helmed by none-other than Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Today we take at look at the behind-the-scenes craftsmanship that went into not only the music, but also the moments of David Fincher’s masterpiece that were defined by ambient noises and textures, often overlooked by the masses who have seen the movie.
Care of the SoundWorks Collection, two members of Fincher’s sound team, Supervisor Sound Editor Ren Kylce and Sound Re-Recording Mixer Michael Semanick, take the viewer through an insider’s look into their process and the importance of matching visual and acoustic aesthetics.
Continue Reading More Than What Meets the Eye »
