Le Tour

Shot these on my Moskva 5 loaded with Adox CHS 25 pushed to 50 ISO.

Jessica and Cassie, two photographers from NKU, are in the top photo. I don't remember ever seeing that huge bottle Jess is holding, but there it is. Looking at the bottom photo, it's hard to believe I lived there and walked those streets. If there hadn't been 200 people on the tiny little platform, I could have stayed all day atop the Eiffel Tower, watching the cloud shadows crawl across Paris.

Finally, I would like to say: Hipstamatic ain't got nothin' on me!

Something's wrong here...

No class until three on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was up early to shoot in dawn light, but after the sun was up I had nothing to do but kill time. I got some tips on two possible trails for the mountain bike within 10 minutes of campus, and decided to check them both out.

Trail one: steep downhills, but not very technical for the most part. Dusty ground with dry leaves over the top = one long skid all the way down. My back wheel was locked for 90% of the runs, and when it wasn't I was going so fast I couldn't even tell what I was riding over. Awesome. I hit a creek at the bottom, pulled an endo, and over the bars I went. Great fun, but the back wheel hit a rock on the way back down and I had to retrue it to get it to spin again.

Trail two: What trail? I rode for 30 minutes on wide gravel paths through the woods, wondering what the person meant by, "I don't know how people ride on those trails." I saw a little offshoot, took it, and there I was in the scariest riding I've ever done. Narrow, steep hills with sharp turns at the bottom, super sharp and pointy rocks waiting for skulls, and some downhills I almost couldn't even push the bike up. I walked all but the easiest parts (gnarly roots running across an almost-cliff), and won't ride the harder stuff until I have a riding buddy with me.

So, all of this exploring without any injuring except to the bike. I get back to the dorm, riding with a tripod in one hand, and lock the brakes while on the sidewalk 20 feet from my door. All my weight shifts forward, and since I only have one hand on the bars, they turn 90 degrees. Down I go: bar end to the bicep, eggbeater to the shin bone. Both are nicely bruised, and my shin is pretty swollen.

Lately...

Hot Pepper Sauce

Chopped peppers + vinegar. I'm going to let it set for a few days and see if it's hot enough.  

As the Teacher's Assistant

Kylie: I didn't get a job yet or a Latin name. What's my strength?
Mr. Fox:  Listen, you're Kylie. You're an unbelievably nice guy. Your job is really just to... be available, I think. I don't know your Latin name. 

So I just watched Fantastic Mr. Fox recently, so excuse me mentioning that movie twice in the past couple days. The above quote just about sums up my role as the Photo One TA. I more or less talk to students about things like shutter speed, auto-focus modes and matrix metering, or engage in witty banter with Chris. In the classic subservient assistant manner, I also bring him his Starbucks. Grande iced coffee, black. It's an easy order.

The perks so far are incredible: three credit hours for talking about photography with people fresh enough not to be cynical, and with technical problems that require 30 seconds with the manual to fix. Chris has already given me a stack of PDN magazines to keep, the rare Cartier-Bresson's France to borrow ("You were in Paris? Here, take this book!"). Today Toni, an older student, gave me her Nikon N90, because she isn't going to shoot film and didn't want it to collect dust. I put on a nice prime lens, grabbed an old roll of Fuji Superia 800, and ran it through the camera during class. Its place in Nikon's 1990s lineup is pretty close to where my D200 was in Nikon's 2000s lineup. I now own two generations of obsolete Nikons! Here are some shots from my first roll.

Too Many Videos Lately

I've been posting too many videos lately for my taste, but hey. I love watching BMX and trials videos, because... well, mostly because they're just plain entertaining. But also because these dudes are simultaneously totally nuts, super talented, focused and driven. Pushing the boundaries of human physical capabilities just to push them... I will never do anything close to what Danny Macaskill does on his bike, and so I'll live vicariously through youtube. I'm here to do something else, and that's fine by me, as long as I can watch him and his cohorts play, and be amazed by the way creation works. When this guy shows his grandkids this video they'll stop making mean comments about him behind his back. They will probably keep making fun of his music though. I ought to stop here and mention that a while ago I was strongly considering buying those same Five Ten Freerider shoes, albeit in a more respectable colorway.


When I'm out of school, I'm going to do a few things. One of them is buy a motorcycle. Another one is start doing motion work. I definitely believe a still image is more potent in most situations, but short films like this, with their thoughtful camerawork and creativity, strongly dispel the loathing I feel for mankind when I see clips like E! or whatever that celebrity gossip TV show is. Plus, I think trained photographers shoot motion video in a funky way, when compared to trained videographers, and I like that. I should go to bed, but I'm going to eat pretzels instead.

Senior Exhibition Mailer Idea...

Redid it, adding back in "photographs by James Rice," which I'd canned earlier. I think it needs to move left a few tics, though. More importantly, a border with cut corners mirroring both the width and style of the font... that might be a problem with commercial printing and trimming, but we'll look into it later, won't we? I really like the main typeface; it ties in with the ideas of the series pretty well. Too bad this isn't due for weeks... in fact it hasn't even been assigned yet!