Startled by art

I had the opportunity to visit the Louvre in Paris, on the 23rd of May. It was packed--and actually pretty delightful despite that.

It was incredible to see classics like Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Mona Lisa, and Coronation of Napoleon. They are all breathtaking (most pieces there are, to be honest--that level of skill is sooo outside my purview).

However, only two pieces truly caught my eye (...and possibly including Venus de Milo).

They are "Reine lagide en Isis: Cleopatre II ou III (?)" and "Peintre par elle même" by Louise Élisabeth Vigée LeBrun.

The first that caught my eye is a bust of unknown sculptor and year. I translated the inscription from French via GoogleTranslate:

Ptolemaic Queen Isis: Cleopatra II or III (?)
II century BC (?)
Marble
Cleopatra II, sister and wife, according to Egyptian royal tradition of Ptolemy VI and of Ptolemy VIII, lived 172 to 116 BC. His daughter Cleopatra III, sister and wife of Ptolemy VII, lived from 141 to 101 BC.
The long curls that frame the face are inspired hairstyles of the Egyptian goddess Isis. The royal banner here indicates that this is a sovereign figured in Isis rather than a representation of the goddess.

I think what drew me in is the curious expression on her face. It's like she's playfully (or actually) miffed by some remark, and subtly amused, while pretending not to be. At least that's my take. I really love this.

Edit: I was researching the sculpture later and found the French word volontaire used to describe it: determined. I concur. Perhaps both my description applies as well, though determined was probably what the sculptor was going for. It turns out she had a tough and (probably forced) incestuous life. I'd be pissed and determined too.

Sources: Family, history of Greek period in Egypt, fantastic scholastic Tumblr, period pieces, Rebel Women Embroidery, Wiki commons, Louvre (14), Wikiwand (French language has pic, English is different), Database image.

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The second was a self-portrait of Vigée LeBrun with her daughter.

The inscription said simply that it was a self-portrait [Peintre (1755+1842) par elle même]. Wikipedia calls it "Self portrait with Her Daughter, 1789".

 I still can't quite put a finger on what I love about it--probably the tenderness and innocence. Both mother and daughter have eyes and facial expressions that are so completely evocative of contented love. I ordered a print of it today.
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Before I visited the Louvre, my favorite pieces were by Salvadore Dali--Persistence of Memory in particular. 

LeBrun's self-portrait is my new favorite, followed by the Isis bust and finally Dali's crazy clocks.

[Image credits: Both photographs were taken by me, in the Louvre.]

Budding film maker

Our minds are strange places--mine is no exception. A favorite activity of mine is to find and make non-sequiturs or just do things that are inexplicable.

To that end, I made two shorts that are a little inexplicable in their existence--the joke is really that I made them.

The first one is from a year and a half ago. I was bored in my parents' house, waiting to start work after grad school, and had time, so I spent it filming stuff around the house. I was telling my friend Mark (formidable film maker/cinematographer/director/sound recorder) about the project and figuring out where I would take it. We were taking video of a solar eclipse at the time, so I had the audio of our discussion of it. I ended up taking that audio and using it for the film. In all, this is the result of work spanning about a month of video taking and editing.
The idea was very meta, and context/theme-less, which is why I thought it was funny. Like I say in the film--it's not good.

3711: a tongue-in-cheek sensory collision

A second film in that vein is the one I made most recently. Its premise is, 'what if I made a movie about the transition scenes that always get cut from films?'--the in-between parts that don't contribute to the story. I made it over the course of a few hours in two days. This is that:

Getting Up (short)

Then there are the ones that I care about. The projects that have actual meaning to me.

My Grandpa Split made a bunch of clocks for my aunts and uncle. I wanted to get him on video telling it, because he loved to spend time with us, and he loved to make clocks, and he also loved to tell us about them and make sure that we were caring for them.
This is his story about that process (there is an extended cut with some more too):

Grandpa's Grandfather Clocks

A second one that is important to me is the engagement of my best friend Cam to his now-wife Kate. I already wrote about it.

The Proposal

I was still kind of learning the D7000 at the time, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, given my dearth of experience in these matters. The moment was chronicled, and I really hope that they are happy with it, because they're amazing and mean a lot to me.

Next: a comedic/educational short with the premise: 'what is your favorite shape?'

Vignette: Echinacea

Image not modified using software; Taken 8/23/14 at 11:28AM EST
F-stop: f/7.1
Exposure time: 1/200 seconds
ISO: 200
Auto white balance
with Nikon D7000 body and Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens

Robin was in town this summer, and I headed with Brian and Scott to do a little tenting in Mackinaw City.  We stayed at TeePee and ventured to the island for a day of fog shrouded hiking.

These Echinacea flowers were from a residential neighborhood near the sports park and high school fields on the island.  The coloring on the petals was vibrant and they had clearly seen some fauna love, evidenced by the state of the edges.

Use of f/7.1 gives the photograph some depth and strata, with petals and stamen in focus.  The light was pretty diffuse because it was so cloudy and foggy.

Vignette: Manistee Galaxies

Image not modified using software; Taken 9/25/14 at 10:03PM EST
F-stop: f/1.8
Exposure time: 8 seconds
ISO: 1600
Auto white balance
with Nikon D7000 body and Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens

The field of stars here is another image from my professors' 80 acres in Manistee, MI.  This was taken from my campsite.  After taking some photographs at the lake I headed back to gaze in my chair before bed, away from the droves of mosquitoes.

Earlier in the summer in Mackinaw City at a Dark Sky event, I was shown where to find the Andromeda Galaxy, M31.  I dutifully returned to find it in this pristine bit of dark sky.  Not only was I rewarded with a sighting of Andromeda (bright smudge high and left of center), but I discovered later at my computer that I had also captured the Triangulum Galaxy, M33, by accident (dim smudge center, near bottom).  See if you can find it.

This image uses the same settings as my Lake Olga Milky Way photograph.  You can see some stars beginning to trail in the corners, upper left in particular.  Some of the brighter stars in the center make up the constellation of Andromeda.  One can use these as signposts to find the location of the galaxies.

Vignette: Mackinac Island Harbor Blues

Image converted from RAW to jpeg in ViewNX 2; Taken 9/18/14 at 10:42AM EST
F-stop: f/8
Exposure time: 1/250 seconds
ISO: 100
Auto white balance
with Nikon D7000 body and Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens

This fall I camped with my parents and friend Cam in Mackinaw City.  It was my first vacation after graduate school, and our first time fall camping on the Straits.  Chilly and delightful.

We found the B&B that a friend of my father was staying at with his wife and this was a view of some docks off the back of it.  It was such a cool, clear day and the moors were so, so empty.  The contrast with summertime bustle struck me right away.

Most striking though were the hues of blue that plastered themselves on any surface they could.  The dock paint contrasted with the water, contrasted with the sky and clouds, contrasted with dock paint.

Vignette: Drizzly Lake Cadillac

Image not modified using software; Taken 12/27/14 at 1:56PM EST
F-stop: f/11
Exposure time: 1/4000 seconds
ISO: 6400
Auto white balance
with Nikon D7000 body and Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens

My family and I went to do some XC skiing in Cadillac this Christmas break, but ended up geocaching in the rain instead.  We were driving along the channel between Lake Cadillac and Lake Mitchell when I stopped for this photo.

It was soggy, wet, cold and windy.  Alas, I was the only one who wanted to stand outside.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend these settings, but I wanted to boost the contrast between the open water on the lake and the ice that the crazy fishermen were risking their lives on.  The graininess is an effect from the high ISO setting combined with short exposure time.

I like how the photograph ended up being somewhat old timey and how the patterns in the ice were accentuated.

Vignette: Lake Olga Milky Way

Image not modified using software; Taken 9/25/14 at 9:19PM EST
F-stop: f/1.8
Exposure time: 8 seconds
ISO: 1600
Auto white balance
with Nikon D7000 body and Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens

I made this image while tenting for a couple nights in Manistee, MI on 80 acres that a professor of mine at Calvin owns.

Conditions were nearly perfect: the moon was new, Lake Olga is in the middle of private and federal forest land away from cities, and the humidity was fairly low that day.  This photograph was taken well after dark.

Though invisible to my eye, an 8 second exposure was still enough to pick up some lingering rays from the setting sun, below the horizon.  This allowed for some color in the sky and clouds, yet was dark enough to expose the Milky Way in the southwestern sky.

Exposing for longer than 8 seconds with my 35mm lens would start to cause star trailing, so I kept it to a minimum.  As your focal length increases, you will need to decrease your exposure time in order to avoid the trailing effect.

Snark

Photo credit: Mural (Banksy); Aardvark (travelnewsnamibia); Bird on a branch (Dawn Smith); Stars (bitácora de Galileo).
In the dark park sat a lark upon the bark.

Its shadow marked stark against the luminous pockmarked bulwark.

"Hark" remarked the aardvark matriarch set to embark.

"Join me Plutarch, in my arc to the celestial monarch."

Hughes park