Category Archives: Photography

The aftermath of this weekend.

My weekend was incredibly eventful. Not only did Fort Lauderdale get side swiped by Sandy, I had to work all weekend at various events, mostly outdoors. I’ve had enough of work for a while, so I’m, going to ignore that part of my weekend and concentrate on Sandy. For those of you about to get hit, I really hope you’ll take this storm seriously. Category 2 or not, this hurricane carries some serious punishment with it. Two days after her departure, my city is still picking up the mess left behind. And we’re USED to hurricanes. The northeast isn’t. Please err on the side of caution, northerners!

I’m pretty sure water isn’t supposed to bubble UP storm drains…

This is probably the best indication of how much the shape
of the beach was changed by Sandy.

We usually only get waves like this DURING a storm, not two days after.

Lifeguards weren’t letting anyone in the water this weekend.

The beach eroded so much the waves broke over
the seawall and onto the street

I have a feeling it’ll be a little while before the beach is back to normal.

Stories: Sometimes You Don’t Need Words

Before I get into the actual reason for this post, I’m going to gloat for a minute. Somehow I managed to cut out about 4000 words of filler from my novel Sing Sweet Nightingale yesterday! I’m still not sure how the number managed to get that high, but it needs to happen again today. I have to get the word count down to around 100,000! Not an easy task…

Anywho, a while ago I posted work by a photographer that was also a really vivid story. Stories can actually be told in a million different ways, many of which don’t involve words at all. Today I’m going to share two new stories, one a short move with no dialogue and one photographer who is chronicling the childhood of his two girls. [click on the above link to see some of his photos]

I found Jason Lee through a post on BoredPanda.com and it tells the story of photographer Jason Lee and his highly energetic, and very creative, daughters. While the actual photography and technical aspects come from Jason, according to the article a lot of the photo ideas (click here to see the article or here for his personal blog) come from the girls! Each one is its own self-contained story and they’re all a lot of fun!

Second, this video is making the rounds on Facebook. I’m not going to say much about it because I don’t think it needs explanation. Once you get to the end, I believe it’ll be pretty obvious why the director produced the project this way.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! I’m off to machete my book some more.

EDITED TO ADD:
I just came across this secondary video about the team who made the video above. I found it really interesting, so I thought I’d share.

Question: What Makes A Story?

sto·ry [stawr-ee, stohr-ee] noun, plural -ries, verb, -ried, -ry·ing. noun
1. a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader; tale.

This definition is not untrue, but it is somewhat limited. Who says a story must be limited to prose or verse? One could argue that music is included in this definition as most would agree songs are written in verse, but what about other forms of art? Does being a painter, sculptor, pianist, or photographer preclude one from being a storyteller? I argue emphatically NO. Take, for example, the photograph below:

[photo removed. to see images referenced, visit this page.]

This incredibly beautiful photograph is a story in itself. Small details like her wedding ring add depth to the story and help you piece together what has happened. Put this photo together with the other photos in the series, and you start to understand the pain this woman is facing. You don’t need to be told. You can see it.

The point? I guess I have a couple. Don’t discount other mediums when telling your story and pay attention (yep, that one again) because everything and everyone has a tale to tell.