Changing the format

It seems that my days of picture taking are done, so what to do with this site? Weeeell. . . I decided to start a new hobby of painting miniature soldiers. As I've been researching this hobby I see that to do it right it will take a long time and fill all the spare time I have, or at least put a good dent in it. I decided on this cause I have a box of about 50 bottles of acrylic paints used to do the other hobby of mine which is wood carving (which will be included here too). But can't wood carve in the winter for my stuff is in the garage and there's no heater. Also it is very messy. The only problem I see in this is that I may have the paints, brushes, but I don't have a magnifier and that costs. Plus the miniatures cost. So I finally get one monthly debt finished, and can use it to supplement the fridge's holdings, but it's going to go to supplement this new undertaking. My first miniature is a 28mm of King Brian Boru. I'm going to have to have my eyes checked too. Getting old really sucks. Any way, I guess I shall post a progress of this hobby as I go along and other things I make. So right now I'm saving up for a lighted magnifier which will take a couple months pinching my food budget will take time.

So photo postings a lot less (just don't have the credentials for access to things) and switching to painting miniatures in the postings at a new blog Gael Ridire! Oh, I'll still take photos and post them here, it's part of me, part of who I am.

Sorry I've been away

It has been almost a year since I posted last. Really have been thinking were I've been and where I'm going. I miss the old days of being a photojournalist and being active in the job but..... Last September it was really sad to see my old employer, the Deseret News, down size drastically by cutting 43% of its staff, and the photo department was gutted by 66%. Staffers who had been there 20+ years were cut. I would have been one of those! Guess it is a blessing to be on disability, I'm better off then those who have been cut. Trying to freelance at this time is crazy! Now I have no respect for the DN with what they have done.

In October I did a freelance job for a neighbor. Nothing to hard, just walk around and get artsy photos of his five business sites in the valley. At each site I even had an electric cart to ride around in at the places. I found that if I had my camera more then 30 minutes around my neck I got a signal from my body that it was in dire pain and to remove the camera from around my neck. I mean screaming pain! After about 45 minutes my torso ached from wearing the photo vest with a couple pieces of equipment in it.

Finally on the second day at the last business site, I fainted from the physical stress and pain! Okay, I got the hint, no more freelancing, no more photo jobs, it is over, retirement! So I've been in a big funk ever since. One photo friend sent me a photo of me in a group of photogs on the sideline at a BYU football game in the early 90s. I had three cameras hanging on me. No problem! I even found a photo of me working the Days of 47 Parade with two cameras and a 300mm f2.8 lens hanging on me, no problem! I miss those days!

Utah Renaissance Fair 2010

 A Lord and his Lady stroll the road of the Fair.

For five years Utah has had a Ren   Fair at Marriott-Slaterville near Ogden.  The event runs for two weekends in the first of May on a private farm.
      A road meanders through trees, bushes, a pound and marshes. A few out buildings have been built to add a little realism, but mainly tents and tent booths line the road. Their are many vendors, and eateries such as the "Holy Grill," and the "Frying Friers."
     Musicians play and people who visit are in various stages of medieval dress, some entire families from children up to mom and dad, appear as knights, squires, musketeers, pirates, gypsies, fairies, and belly dancers. Older couples dress up as lords and their ladies, and many men wear kilts.

(above) Belly dances among vendors.
(left) Young girl dressed as fairy.

(left) Knights practice fighting.
(bottom) Mode to fair may have changed,
but the clothes haven't.

(above) Fire eater.
(left) Half masked face.









     I often thought that this was a bit silly. Living history sights are great, but those who belong to the Society of Creative Anachroisim (sp?) or SCA tend to get into their period and forget this is 2010. For ten years my family and I attended Celtic festivals, having a Scottish clan tent and an Irish tent. We helped people learn of their roots and clan history. We wore kilts, but we kept in mind that it was the 20th Century, some forgot and thought they were Highlanders. But the last few years the has been a strong movement in the Irish and Scottish societies to forget their history and culture. Forget clans, castles, kilts and bagpipes. The only ones who will keep the memory and uniqueness of the past alive will be reenactment people and clan societies.
     So perhaps a day or two at the Fair, dressing up as what-ever, is okay. Its a day to play act, to forget the daily stress of society living, and for the day be a knight, a Lady in waiting, or a fairy.
     The highlight of the Fair is the jousting competition by the "Knights of Mayhem." They aren't actors, but true athletes. They use the same type of armour and lances as 700 years ago, and they are trying to get the Olympic team to recognize their sport, which has three divisions, the top level being professionals who compete internationally. Truly the ultimate oldest extreme sport.

     Both knights lances strike their target and brake, but no rider is unhorsed.

(left) "Prince Killem of Scotland."
(bottom) "Sir Edward of England."                                                                       

                        

(left) Sir Edward rests bruises between shows.
(bottom) "Freedom!" yells Prince Killem. 











     What was hard was carrying two cameras around my neck and three lenses. I used a photo vest to lighten the load, but in the end I really hurt in the lower back, and worst was where the neck and shoulders meet. I was really frustrated not being able to climb around quickly to get various angles like I use to. At the end I had to rest three times going to the car because of the pain. One photog by the name of Jon Woodbury came up to me while exiting the gate, and said, "You a pro?" I replied, "Is it that obvious?" "Yes." We then talked to our cars. I had to drive to local fast food place and rest for almost an hour and half , then I could raise my head and able to drive home. Oh to be young again!

Photogs are a buddy group

It is amazing to me how most photographers are friends that I haven't met, yet. Oh sure, we are competitors at events with each other. Trying to get the shot of the event. Yet there is a comradery that I have had writers tell me they envy.

Okay, we do have a strange language we use around each other; words like aperture, f-stop, iso, push/pull, fast glass, grain/noise, prime, etc., and the addition of digital has added a lot more strange words. And getting excited on describing the "decisive moment" we not only saw but captured with the camera. What's that all about?

Most normal people have nightmare dreams of falling, go being in public without clothes. Not photographers. No we dream of having a lens fall off the camera, or showing up at an event with no film/flash cards, etc. In fact for me since retiring thirteen years ago it is about going on assignments, any assignment, and these are nightmares to me because I still want to shoot assignments. I have these probably four times a week.

                                                    "Animal"


We've been portrayed as "geeks" by Jimmy Olson in Superman films. Unkept eccentrics by Dennis "Animal" Price in the "Lou Grant Show." And unethical crusaders in the film "Under Fire." Some in the profession have done some unethical things, especially in this digital age. But we are there for each other. Say what?!

I've been on assignments where I had no film and the "other newspaper's photographer gave me a couple rolls of film. Even had them share a lens I didn't have. At one assignment I was to cover a guy swimming across a cold lake with me in a canoe along side being rowed by a couple of Eagle Scouts. Started out and didn't get more then fifteen feet from the shoreline when one of the "Eagle Scouts" rolled the canoe and I sunk to the bottom of the lake with $7500 dollars worth of camera gear around my neck. Wadding back to the shore not having shot a single frame, a competing newspaper photographer drove up, and loaned me a camera. Being already drenched, I wadded out in the lake to chest level, and got a photo of the guy restarting his swim from water level. Hey, we even share with one another shooting spots once we have been there ourselves. Much different then when I freelanced with a reporter from San Francisco newspaper covering a national event. I asked him if he wanted to brainstorm on photo ideas and he replied no. His union was different then the photographers. Excuse me! And yes there are those who think they are a gift to the profession, what genre doesn't have them. For me, you talk the talk, but can your work back up the talk.

Today there are two websites that I visit almost everyday. These sites are www.sportsshooter.com/ and utahphotojournalism.com/. They are two sites that help fellow photographers to display their work, get critiques on their work, ask questions about anything, and being a social network. No one makes fun of rookies in the business, or the seasoned veterans who are losing their teeth and need focus help.

Physical abbilities of photography

I’ve been watching the Olympics and wishing that I could be there, camera in hand. But then a wake up came from a friend, Trent Nelson, chief photographer of the Salt Lake Tribune, who is covering the games for his newspaper.  He posted on his blog, photos of him photographing the luge & skeleton track races. The shooting position for the photographers was right next to the track. The space was just wide enough for one to stand. So for hours one had to stand in this icy trough, no sitting down, not even the using of a monopod to help hold a 600mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter.  I couldn’t do this! In fact he said that most of the events had to be photographed with a 600mm lens often with the 1.4 teleconverter. Gross!

 

Singer-Swapp stand off seige.

Garry with 600mm & TC 300.

I recently photographed a wedding for a friend. My neck and shoulder muscles got all stressed out and tensed up just from a camera with short lenses on. No camera bag filled with lenses, no second or third camera. The stress of the situation dropped my blood pressure to dangerous low levels. I remember back twenty-eight years to when I was in Asia and carried a camera bag on my right shoulder that weighed thirty-five pounds. I carried two Nikon bodies, two Leica bodies with 35 & 100mm lenses, Nikkor lenses of 500mm, 20mm, 35mm, 55 micro, 105mm, & 180mm, plus a mash-potato flash. Oh yea, and a hundred rolls of Kodachrome, Ektachrome, and Tri-X film. I did this without even blinking an eye or grunting once.

On the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in 1991, I was sent to Hawaii to cover the week long events. On one day was Pres. George Bush at the cemetery in the old volcano bowl of WWII soldiers. I remember standing there for several hours on the end of an expandable riser, room only for standing with elbows in. What the real drag was is not having a 300mm f2.8 to cover the event, but a 300mm f4.5. My peers at the newspaper needed the lenses (we had two) to cover the college and Jazz basketball games (show's what is more important). Did the job, but soooo wished I had an 300 f2.8.

When photographing sports, I often used a vest to carry film and a couple lenses in, instead of a photo bag. This was first done with fishing vests, later photo vests were made, and I used them. Most photogs now hate to use vests, or at least they bad mouth them, but I find them very usefull, and the weight is carried by my torso, instead of my right shoulder.

Wow, getting old really sucks!!!

Having access

I went to a lecture a few weeks ago and saw some photographs taken by a great photographer. What dawned on me is that his great photographs came from assignments he was hired to do. In fact it has become clear that many of photographs that I've taken came from assignments, or while doing assignments. Why can't I take the same photos today, what has changed? The really big change is that I don't have credintials! In the past I could often just flash my press pass and gain access to an event, or some reporter had greased the way for me to have access. I don't have that avenue anymore! I think that I'm actually a better photographer now then then, but it doesn't matter, I'm retired, I'm too old. But I still love finding and seeing the decisive moment! I've tried to gain access to things and been denied. However I had a wake-up call the other day doing a wedding for a friend. It was hard to carry the few pieces of gear I had, physically I'm in terrible shape. Just shooting the bridal portraits I almost fainted from low blood-preasure. I worked to hard. I want to be in Haiti where my vision would excel, I want to be at the Winter Olympics, but I couldn't carry the gear or endure the getting around. Someday I will admit to myself that I'm washed-up, but till then . . .

The Texas Troubadour - Rusty Wier

Okay I'm slow, learned last night that my favorite musician of all genres passed away several months ago. Rusty Wier - The Texas Troubadour died on 9 October 2009, age 65, losing his battle against liver cancer of two years. His family and close friends surrounded his bed singing "Amazing Grace" when he took his last breath trying to sing along.
     His golden years was the mid to late 70s when he produced four albums/CDs. His most famous single wasn't made famous by Rusty, but by Bonnie Raitt's rendition of  "Don't it make you wanna' dance," which appeared in the movie and on the soundtrack of "Urban Cowboy."
     Rusty's music style was a blend of folk, country, rock, and blues; a unique sound that was all his own. Rusty was a true entertainer, I watch many times in concert his ability to take control of a crowd. Once performing as a warm-up act for (don't remember who) the audience was rowdy. Rusty just kept on picking & singing. He then stopped and started telling how a song came to be with great animation. One by one the audience clammed down and began listening. That was it, Rusty had them is his grasp. The rest of the night it was toe tapping and hand clapping. Rusty came back for four encores!
     He was also well known for showing up during some other band's act, entering the stage, playing with the headlining band for a few sets, then exiting. The audience in Texas would go wild. He did this in New York City and it left the audience speechless. They didn't know what to think or do, for no body had done this there before.

 
     My favorite place to hear his tunes was the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, Texas. An old National Guard Armory turned into a 1300 seat concert hall & outdoor beer garden. Many great acts performed here. I was stationed at Bergstrom AFB and had unlimited access to film and printers that could blow up the negatives to 30x40. I'd trade poster style photographs to the 'dillo's art director in exchange for free tickets to concerts. It was a time of zero censorship by bands. I photographed the entire concert. At the end of one concert I went back stage to see Rusty and he was laying on the floor exhausted from his performance.
     The last time I saw him in concert was in July 1976, in concert with many top country-rock or progressive country acts such as: B.W. Stevenson, Steven Fromholz, and Willie Nelson. Wow! What a concert for nearly five hours.
     Perhaps what was unique about his music was that he wrote most of his material. There was a lot of humor in his songs. One song he never recorded was titled "The Cigarette Man." About a fellow he notice in the student union building cafe at the University of Texas, who passed out cigarettes to those who would come up and ask him.Perhaps it wasn't recorded because now it wouldn't be politically correct, naw, Rusty wouldn't care!
     In all Rusty recorded 12 albums/CDs. The last 17 years he played at the Saxon Club. He appeared on the PBS TV show Austin City Limits three times.
     Rusty Wier may have "laid his guitar down" now, but his music still "makes you wanna' dance."
     To hear a tribute to the Texas Troubadour go to rustywier.com.