shed series :: tyler thomson, sonic illumination

tyler-3.jpg

I'm working on some things. Namely how to use my shed for a specific kind of portrait where the background falls away into darkness. I'm trying to understand and apply something called the "Inverse Square Law" which states that the power of the light will be inversely proportional to the square of the distance. But you know me and math. It's taking awhile.

Essentially the Inverse Square Law is about a dramatic drop off in light over distance. And the better I understand it (ha!), the better I can control it. Added to that, I'm trying to work on portraiture too. And me and people. Well. It's a lot.

My neighbor Tyler makes the perfect subject. He's about an easy going guy as you could meet, and he's happy to answer the call of my text any time I want to see if the light is right. Tyler owns a company called Sonic Illumination, and when you get him talking about music and technology and how music can move you through your day or even change the way your brain works, well, then he really lights up. His hands start moving and his face engages. He becomes motion and light and laughter. If it's stereos, his kids, SONOS, or blogging, he moves fully into his subject. It's beautiful to behold.

Even better?  He'd do anything for you. Like standing still. The way he did for me.

weekend lookback, november 3

Well, we're a little late around here today, aren't we? Blame standard time, blame me finally catching Cal's cold from last week, blame the coastal storm that dropped our temps and kicked up our winds... whatever! I love fall! I just want to thank whomever scheduled the school calendar for the the year for making the Monday after the end of Daylight Savings a school holiday.

We plan all snuggles all day until a hitting lesson at 4. Sounds pretty perfect to me.

Actually, minus the hitting lesson, sounds like most of my weekend. Neighborhood fire pit for Halloween, monthly brunch with friends on Sunday, a lot of sofa rest with the beagle in between. I can't really complain.

On Friday, a member of my photo group had a birthday and that was really nice. Seriously, this meeting, twice a month is one of my favorite parts of my week. We're formalizing the format a bit (lots of forms in that sentence) since it's easy for groups like these to devolve from "photo group" into "coffee group." And last week we talked about some of the ah-ha moments we've had along our photography journey as well as some struggles we're having. If I limit it to three, I can pinpoint specific "ah-ha moments." One is a specific lens. One is discovering, with the help of one of my instructors, another photographer, and the other I'll tell you about in a little bit.

I guess the important thing is to be able to look back on your journey and see the things that have shifted perspective for you. That have made your leaps. Regardless of your medium, what ah-ha moments have changed you?