mike’s “Flux”

One of the meanings of “flux” as in a “state of flux” is a state of constant change. I know it is cos, well, I just know it is. Plus I looked it up in the dictionary… just to confirm. After all, it has been known (on rare occasions) for my memory to deceive me. I think the last time was about five minutes ago in fact. If only I could remember that far back.

Anyway, soon as ugly mug suggested “flux” as this month’s theme I instantly knew what I was gonna do.
Y’see, I’ve got these two candles in my workroom. That are in a state of constant (albeit very slow) change… from being perfectly serviceable candles to becoming something pretty near useless.

No intervention or meddling on my part. All caused by the temperature I tend to keep my workroom at. For the past three years or so. One day I may get around to changing them.

So here’s my contribution to this month’s theme…

Speed, but not speed

And so the month of February comes to a close as does this month’s theme; speed. I was lamenting with Chuff how I had hoped this topic would come up during the summer months as it is my intention to make some weekend jaunts to a race track a few hours drive from my home. The idea of shooting racing cars for the theme “speed” seemed perfect. Alas, timing is not exactly my forte in life. However, this may have been for the best as I believe I now have a better grip on how difficult it can be to duplicate the essence of speed via photography.

For example:

This is our cat Big Boi. Big Boi loves the red laser light and will chase same any time he sees it. Except this time. When I wanted him to do such. No. This time he was incredibly uncooperative. I wonder if it was the lights I had put up, along with the tripod, etc. All the extra stuff may have spooked him. Regardless, Big Boi is quite the fast cat for a big cat. Hell, he’s fast for a small and sleek cat. Simply put; he’s powerful. But during the few odd moments when he would cooperate I found that a typical shutter speed (1/250 and faster thanks to my better-than-usual lighting setup) simply didn’t capture any real sense of speed or motion. He always wound up looking like a freeze-frame from a movie. To counter this issue I turned off some of my lighting and switched to shutter priority, thus allowing me to control the shutter speed, which I stuck at 1/15 of a second. In the end I think 1/30 would have been superior, but I could not get him to cooperate any further and thus was stuck with this as my shot. Drat and damn as my friends across the pond might say.

Naturally the idea of shooting a fast-moving object came to mind on many occasions, but I eschewed the vehicular route seeing how it was already being done and I didn’t wish to duplicate the great work done by others. My mind being rather slow it took me until this week to say “Hey! How about trains!” And so it was that a fast moving train became my next target for the month’s topic.

My mind raced to think of locations where I have previously seen trains, but none of them fit-in very well with my needs. Meaning: most locations involved elevated tracks to where I couldn’t climb. Then suddenly my brain kicked into gear and remembered a location not too far from home where I could get right down onto the tracks! No, this isn’t the same place where I previously shot pictures of tracks and trains and that particular location wouldn’t have worked anyway. It is more of a marshaling area and while it has trains, they never seem to move, much less move quickly.

So it was just the other day that I drove off with my equipment and set up in anticipation of a train that never seemed to be coming. I swear…..I hung out for about 40-minutes…..waiting…..somewhat patiently, while no train ever arrived. And just as I was slinging my equipment back over my shoulder to head back to the car came the whistle. “Ah! Shit!” I shouted as I raced back, extending the tripod legs, bringing out the camera, etc. and snapped my bum-load of pictures. But this is all I got:

Maybe seventy-five pictures. Some taken showing more cars as they whizzed by and other images more like this, whereby I’ve focused on a narrow angle of a single car. To be frank I didn’t like ANY of the images taken except for this one. And to be frank, it doesn’t capture the sense of speed for which I was aiming. Granted, the train was moving markedly slower than I had anticipated and the train wasn’t particularly long so I didn’t have loads of time to try different shutter speeds, etc. Regardless, I like the colour in the image and the neat effect of the white lettering so you’ll just have to live with this.

However, not all was lost on this particular venture. I learned that I really don’t have a clue as to what I’m doing when trying to capture the essence of speed and/or motion. It isn’t just about a slow shutter speed. It’s about panning. And shutter speed. And aperture, I’m certain. So I need to work on this because if I intend to shoot pics of racing vehicles this summer I had better get my act together. And in connection with that…….while I was waiting for the train I was approached by a skate boarder who was at this location. There is a long, winding and fairly steeply graded paved trail right by this portion of the railroad tracks. He asked if I was a professional (which made me laugh so hard I hurt myself – seriously), but wasn’t perturbed that I wasn’t. He asked if I would mind, when I was done with the train, taking pictures of him and his friend as they “bombed” the trail. And this I did my friends. I wasn’t able to capture the essence of speed here either, but I told the guy that I would be more than happy to meet up with him and his friend again to try more of this sort of photography. This worked well for him and his mate as they both work for a local skate board magazine and would like to have someone available to take pictures more often.

Maybe with some practice with these guys I could get a handle on speed. Maybe.

Tam ON Speed…heh heh

No, not really ON speed, just taking some snaps as Brad drove tonight. I thought the pic conveyed the theme quite well.

mike’s “Speed” #2

When I shot this pic the furthest thing from my mind was our themes project. Hadn’t thought of including it, and had no intention to so do. Until Tam pointed out (on Flickr) how its a good representation of speed.

And y’know what? She’s right! So here it is.

Mark was interested to know whether or not I’d used a tripod to take it. I can understand the question cos generally with this type of shot that’s exactly what one would use.
But no; in this instance it really wasn’t necessary as the water was flowing so fast.

Generally, although knowing they’re quite popular I don’t really like this type of shot, where the water looks little other than a sort of creamy blur.
I much prefer shots that “freeze” the water for, to my mind, they actually seem to capture the “spirit” and (bizarrely) the sense of movement in the water much better.

What I quite like about this shot however, and the reason I decided it was a “keeper”, is the contrast between that blurred smooth water and the detail of all the surrounding brickwork etc. I don’t think it would have worked nearly as well had the water not been in such an enclosed space.

Tam’s Speed

Nike, the goddess of strength, SPEED, and victory.

I love her. Every time I visit the Birmingham Botanical Gardens I go see her. She’s amazing. What a beautiful piece of art.

Some info on Nike from wikipedia

With the wind in his hair…

I’m so very happy that “speed” was the selection for the month. I only wish it had come during the summer time as it would have fit in so well with a planned trip to a motor racing course found in central Ohio. Oh well.

Things actually worked out rather well for me with this month’s offering as I happened to have planned a trip to a local park (Hills and Dales MetroPark, part of the Five Rivers MetroParks system found here in the Dayton, Ohio area) for the purpose of shooting photographs of sledders who make good use of this particular parks wide open hills. And certainly some of the sledders can build up a fair bit of steam on their way down the various hills as evidenced below…

The spray of the snow…the wind-blown hair….the eyes squinting in an attempt to shut-out the freezing cold air. Yep. I got lucky this time. I was able to merge my already made plans into our monthly theme without great difficulty or hand-wringing.

However, I’m now stuck with contemplating what shall be my next photograph for the month, but I already have something in mind and here’s to hoping it works out well!

mike’s “Speed”

“Speed”… a popular name for one of the well-known “recreational” drugs, technically methamphetamine, its acquired a long list of other street names for itself such as whizz, meth, billy, chalk, sulphate, crystal meth, grudge, ice, dexys, glass, blues etc.

It’s considered to be the UK’s most “tainted” illegal drug with a purity customarily of about 5%, the rest mixed with other white powders from (for example) talcum powder to toilet cleaner. Some speed has been found to have a purity of only about 2%! Dodgy stuff indeed… and actually a bit of a rip-off.

Customarily the drug comes as a white, greyish white, pale pink or yellow powder and can sometimes look like small crystals. It can also come in the form of clear chunky crystals (which contain a substance called hydrochloride) or brightly coloured tablets, whilst prescription amphetamines like dexamphetamine are usually small white pills.

“Base”, which is like a “deluxe” variant with more intense effects, is purer and is a pinkish-grey colour, having a texture similar to putty.

Speed’s either dabbed onto the gums or sniffed in lines like cocaine, though with too much sniffing one can end up sneezing lumps out the nose… not a particularly sociable party trick! Sometimes, as “speedbombs”, its rolled up in fag papers and swallowed. It can be mixed in drinks or, most riskily, injected (the principal risks being vein damage, ulcers and gangrene. And its now common knowledge that dirty or shared needles can spread hepatitis and HIV. Injecting is especially risky cos the drug can be cut with so much crap).

Its often taken along with Ecstasy. Not a good practise, and its probably best to also avoid taking the drug with anti-depressants or alcohol as this can be fatal! As can an overdose of course.
Nor is it particularly clever to mix it with stuff like poppers or coke cos this can cause major heart problems… like stopping for example!

So why do people take it? Dunno. Never really understood why folk take any of the recreational drugs (says he, a lifelong nicotine addict, and somewhat partial to caffeine and alcohol. Though none of those are illegal… yet!).

After much speculation over rather more years than I care to recollect, the only conclusions I’ve been able to come up with are that for some people life is either too much to cope with, or not sufficiently “exciting”, or they perceive it as a sort of “grey drudgery” and are looking for an “escape”. The truth is though, I don’t really know.

Trying to relate it to my own experience with my “addictions”, well, I originally started smoking when I was quite young, and I s’pose it was cos I wanted to appear “grown up”.
Dad first got me onto the booze (though I did have a period of nearly twenty years when I was a strict non-imbiber, so I can’t wholly blame him) and as for the coffee… quite simply I got bored drinking gallons of tea! (Always had a bit of an appetite for fluids… moreso than for food in fact. Odd!)
Not sure any of that has a bearing on why folk risk using the illegal drugs though.

So what do folk get out of speed? Well, it makes them feel wide awake, excited, chatty (very often boringly so in fact). Clubbers take it because apparently it gives them an energy boost enabling them to dance for hours at a time without getting knackered. It can also bring about a loss of inhibitions and maybe a tendency to become a bit emotional.
Basically it stimulates alertness and self-confidence, and raises energy- and stamina-levels. It reduces the appetite (speed was once the main ingredient in diet pills) and lessens the urge, even the ability, to sleep.

Rather disturbingly (and against a background of her knowing I’m not, nor ever have been, into illegal “recreational” drugs) a friend once remarked, after having known me for quite some time, that I often tend to appear like a person who’s permanently on speed, particularly when I’m pursuing one of my many “projects”!
Hmm. Must be something to do with the body/brain chemistry. Not sure whether I’m pleased about it or not. P’raps I should be cos its like having all the benefits without any of the nasty side-effects.
(Who knows, one day I may even regale you with the fascinating details of my weird metabolism!)

Anyway, it can be highly addictive, though prolonged use can result in serious mental and physical problems… paranoia and the sense that one’s being followed or watched are not uncommon, neither are hallucinations.

And after every high there’s usually a low of course. “Coming down” off speed (especially if one’s had a binge) can produce tiredness, lethargy and depression… a general feeling of “unwellness”. Taking loads of orange juice and vitamins sometimes helps, and eating well.

Amphetamines were originally introduced into the UK in the 1930s as a treatment for colds, flu and hay fever though, perversely, taking a lot of the stuff can impair the immune system and render one susceptible to even more colds, flu and sore throats.

Its available in “legal” form from various pharmaceutical companies under brand names such as Desoxyn, Desoxyn Gradumet, and others.

Obviously its recreational use (in the UK at least) is illegal, and it can be detected in the urine for up to 2-4 days after use.

What strikes me as a bit curious is that as soon as Brian announced this month’s theme as “Speed” my mind immediately jumped to the drug connotation rather than to the conventional use of the word. Must be something to do with some of the dodgy circles I tend to move in.

Needless to say my pic this month, relatively straightforward in appearance yet quite tricky to set up (and with no post-editing involved… in other words, its not been “photoshopped”), isn’t actually of the “real thing”… regard it as a “symbolic representation”!

And just so you all know, I shed blood over this pic… quite literally! For at some point in the setting up I’d managed to slice my finger without even noticing, and was dripping blood all over the props and the camera. There’s actually a trace of one of the drops in the picture (one I missed in the cleanup)… if you know where to look and what to look for (cos it certainly doesn’t look like blood!).

[Info comes from a variety of "sources"!]