Humid evening—
a housefly quits the wall
to make love to my nose.
Copyright © 2013 Jim Sizemore.
This is a re-post from January 19, 2009.
Today’s Haiku
January 30, 2013
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animals, haiku, humor, insects, love, nature, poetry, writing | Tagged: animals, flys, haiku, housefly, insects, nature, poetry, writing | 
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Today’s Gag
January 28, 2013
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Hip Shots
January 25, 2013Casablanca II
By Fred Maddox
(Click images for larger views.)
The “Hip Shots” series of photographs will feature images that were grabbed “on the fly,” with little or no regard for framing and focus. The object of the exercise is to create dynamic pictures, not perfect ones. With this ” shoot-from-the-hip” method, the more frames exposed, the better the chances are that you’ll come up with something interesting — a related series that may be arranged as a post. If you’d like additional tips for using the technique, or to submit your own images, drop a question or note in the “Leave a Comment” section, below. This feature will appear most Fridays.
Copyright © 2013 Fred Maddox.
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Today’s Pic
January 23, 2013
Many people attracted to community theater—as actors or to work backstage—are involved for only a limited time, anything from the run of one production to a few years. Volunteering to work on a play, in whatever capacity, involves hours, days and weeks of hard creative work. It’s a huge commitment, especially if you have a day-job or a family (or both), and after awhile some folks—even those who love the experience and would like to continue—feel they have to drop out. On the other hand, there’s the long-term involvement of people like Sharon Weaver. (She’s pictured above rehearsing her solo in the Baltimore Spotlighter’s Theater 1977 musical production of Zorba The Greek.) After more than thirty years, Sharon is still at it. These days, though, she’s usually running the show. At a recent gathering of local theater people, Sharon and I had a chat about the Harold Pinter play “Old Times,” which she is directing for the Vagabond Players’ 93rd season. The theater bills itself as “America’s Oldest Continuous Little Theatre,” and Sharon has been active with it, or with other local stages, a full third of that time. Now that’s a commitment to community theater.
Editor’s update. The Zorba production was in 1977, the Pinter play Sharon directed opened in 2009, and she’s directed many more since. Now here we are in 2013. At another recent gathering—this time to read a draft of my one-act play about a young boy–Sharon volunteered to take the part of the mother. Her commitment continues.
This is a re-post from October 22, 2008.
Copyright © 2013 Jim Sizemore.
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Today’s Gag
January 21, 2013
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Hip Shots
January 18, 2013Casablanca
By Fred Maddox
(Click images for larger views.)
The “Hip Shots” series of photographs will feature images that were grabbed “on the fly,” with little or no regard for framing and focus. The object of the exercise is to create dynamic pictures, not perfect ones. With this ” shoot-from-the-hip” method, the more frames exposed, the better the chances are that you’ll come up with something interesting — a related series that may be arranged as a post. If you’d like additional tips for using the technique, or to submit your own images, drop a question or note in the “Leave a Comment” section, below. This feature will appear most Fridays.
Copyright © 2013 Fred Maddox.
Leave a Comment » | acting, actors, couples, crime, death, drama, film, film noir, Hip Shots, images, love, lust, marriage, movies, music, photography, relationships | Tagged: couples, domestic conflict, Dooley Wilson, drama, film noir, greed, hip shots, images, Ingrid Bergman, love, lust, money, photography, pictures, relationships, shoot-from-the-hip | Permalink
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Today’s Pic
January 16, 2013
For a time during the late 1970s and early to mid ’80s, I rented condos or apartments in Ocean City, Maryland and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and invited friends and family to join me for a few days or a week. On this occasion it was raining in Rehoboth, which made it a good day to stay inside and doodle with my camera. I liked the “frames-within-a-frame” situation created by the screened-in porch, so I set up the image and waited until serendipity took over and the young lady walked into the scene. She made what had been a so-so composition something special, and I congratulated myself for being such a good —and patient — photographer. But then I noticed that I had screwed up the focus. Or, to put a positive spin on it, is it just rain drops softening the view of that girl and those edges?
Originally titled “A Day at the Beach” this is a re-post from August 11, 2008.
Copyright © 2013 Jim Sizemore.
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Today’s Gag
January 14, 2013
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Hip Shots
January 11, 2013Double Indemnity III
By Fred Maddox
(Click images for larger views.)
The “Hip Shots” series of photographs will feature images that were grabbed “on the fly,” with little or no regard for framing and focus. The object of the exercise is to create dynamic pictures, not perfect ones. With this ” shoot-from-the-hip” method the more frames exposed, the better the chances are that you’ll come up with something interesting — a related series that may be arranged as a post. If you’d like additional tips for using the technique, or to submit your own images, drop a question or note in the “Leave a Comment” section, below. This feature will appear most Fridays.
Copyright © 2013 Fred Maddox.
Leave a Comment » | acting, actors, couples, crime, dating, death, drama, film, film noir, images, love, lust, movies, photography, relationships | Tagged: couples, crime, domestic conflict, drama, film noir, greed, hip shots, images, love, lust, money, photography, pictures, relationships, shoot-from-the-hip | Permalink
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Today’s Pic
January 9, 2013
An actor waiting backstage can appear to be a lonely person, at least this one did to me. Was he feeling sad, I wondered, or just focused on trying to remember his lines?
On February 20, 1982, when I made the image, I was backstage at a community theater pretending to be an actor myself, but I was too busy to be lonely or bored. I had only one line in the play, which came late in the last act, so there was plenty of time to concentrate on what I was really there for — to learn all I could about how a play is staged. I was doing research for a play I eventually wrote called “Local Talent,” for the Baltimore Playwrights Festival. My play was about a community theater group staging a production in a summer play-writing festival. At the time, I thought that conceit was a clever creative roundabout — and I was taking pictures as well as notes.
The low light backstage required a wide aperture setting, which accounts for the shallow depth of field. Note that the face of the actor is sharp, while his right hand and arm are in softer focus. And the even softer secondary “portrait” — the moody reflection in the mirror — has a “painterly” quality I find very appealing. I was also attracted to the visual contrast of the three vertical capped pipes at the left edge of the frame, and I was careful to include them in the composition.
(This is a re-post from May 19, 2008.)
Copyright © 2013 Jim Sizemore.
Leave a Comment » | acting, actors, drama, photography, theater | Tagged: acting, actors, backstage, Baltimore, community theater, drama, framing, images, Maryland, photography, pictures, rehearsals | Permalink
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