Fear and Fear Itself

Posted by dkrashb on December 18, 2012

The hula hoop never seemed so exciting before.

Tonight’s images are from some of the most dynamic participants in the Starlight Parade. I think the gymnasts were the most thrilling. Although the fire twirlers are evocative, perhaps it just comes down to the degree of difficulty between twirling brands with burning ends and flipping and hand springing across asphalt–and, the probability of disaster.

While fire, of course, creates its own sense of danger and requires respect, the probability of lighting oneself on fire seems to be rather low, although I was concerned about one young woman’s choice to wear a gathered skirt. The probability of falling on one’s face mid-flip onto also-known-as-cheese-grater black top seems quite high.

It could be that this is just my personal experience. I feel relatively safe handling burning things and have actually never (knock wood) caused an uncontrolled fire. I’ve also never burnt myself playing with sparklers, candles, burning marshmallows (which strikingly resemble the firebrands twirled in the parade), campfires, camp stoves, or grills. I believe the only non-cooking-related fire injury I’ve ever suffered from was when I tried to light a bunch of birthday candles with a lighter and the metal part of the lighter overheated and burned my thumb. It was only a minor burn.

While I’ve had my share of bad burns in my lifetime, none of them have involved flames. What woman my age didn’t at some point accidentally brand her neck with a curling iron? Or get in a hurry and grab a pan out of the oven without getting a hot pad first? Or how about wipe out on a moped and get a third degree burn from the muffler? We’ve all done that, haven’t we?

And speaking about wiping out on a moped, this brings me back to the fear of asphalt. The most painful accident I ever had (including many broken bones) was when I took a ride hand turn on my bicycle way too fast for the space I had. I was turning onto a narrow side street coated with what’s fondly known as “chip and tar.” Instead of the smooth goo they put down for asphalt, they spread a layer of fine gravel and then spray it with a tar coating to stick the gravel in place and keep the dust down.

My rear wheel slipped across loose pieces of gravel. I went down hard enough to slide about a foot or so.

When I got up and looked at my knee, I pretty good chunk of it was missing. I looked more carefully and realized there were fine curly-queues of a substance resembling wide dental floss coming out of my knee. I later learned they were “shavings” off the tendon below my skin. Still gives me the creeps to think about it.

In the end, I have come to the conclusion that the human brain works very simply when it comes to fear: We fear what we most know to be terrifying.

This woman is marching, looking straight up, and twirling firebrands. I’m impressed.

Father and daughter watch the parade next to me.

Graceful and dangerous–very entertaining.

I was really worried she was going to catch her skirt on fire.

Gymnast and shadow about to be re-introduced.

This guy was fearless on the asphalt street.

Bring on the Parade

Posted by dkrashb on December 17, 2012

Not sure if there’s still room to sleep in this camper, but the tree sure looks nice.

It’s hard for me to look at my parade pictures today. I remind myself that every child shouldn’t suffer because of the 20 lost on Friday. Perhaps the loss makes Christmas (or whichever holiday each family celebrates), hope, and cheer that much more important.

I realize the feeling I have is the same one I always get following a tragedy. It’s best described as “heightened visceralness” (even if it’s not a real word).

Most of the time, I go through life thinking about what I need to do in the next hour, the next day, the next week. I push aside any bubbling sensations in my stomach, throat, or guts and stay focused on what I need to get done.

In the process of disconnecting from my visceral reactions, I also seem to disconnect from my own life. I often walk into rooms and wonder why I’m there, fail to realize my husband has come home or left, or drive somewhere without being able to recall any part of the drive.

When I am reminded how tentative life can be, first I choke. My throat closes, I have trouble breathing. Then I cry. Then I am left with rumblings in the pit of my stomach that I suspect are the disquiet of knowing I am doing nothing to change anything.

I have a sneaking suspicion that these visceral reactions happen every day, but until I am literally choked with tears (which doesn’t happen often), I refuse to pay attention to them.

Now that I am paying attention, I am reminded once again that I must pay attention to now. To the moments I have. Like the moment I am in right now sitting on the sofa, typing, dog curled next to me with a warm foot pressed against my leg.

To fail to notice each moment because I’m so distracted by the news is to give a piece of my life to a dead gunman in Connecticut when it’s far too late to make a difference.

And so, I close my browser full of news feeds and videos about Sandy Hook elementary. I pull up the photos I’d prepared for yesterday’s post. I think of all the smiling children at the Chattanooga Starlight Parade with a warm feeling akin to a mental hug. I say to myself, “Bring on the parade.”

“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.”

~Gilbert K. Chesterton

That said, here are the next set of photos from the Starlight Parade in downtown Chattanooga. I’m normally not that excited by cars in a parade. But, I did enjoy the creative decorations folks came up with. I especially enjoyed the children around me calling out the names of familiar characters they saw go by.

This VW bus makes for a more creative way to enter a float.

The lawn mower racing team made a striking night time appearance.

Smiles adorned this float.

This ancient fire truck hitched a ride so it too could make an appearance in the parade.

The Chattanooga Zoo opted for simulated animals instead of live ones.

Not a great shot, but I love thinking about how much more fun the Grinch would have had taking this down the mountain!

A brightly lit Rudolf adorns this collectible car.

Electric Eclectic

Posted by dkrashb on December 15, 2012

Carefully arranged dancers make an artistic float.

Let’s talk about the word “eclectic.” According to dictionary.com, it means “deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and divers range of sources.”

I think the Starlight Parade qualified as eclectic.

Is this a giant Elmo or am I just out of date on kids characters?

Let’s see:

Semi Trucks
Santas on Harleys
Vintage VWs
Marching Band
Cheerleaders
Lawnmower racing team
Ballerinas
Flame twirlers
Lighted twirlers
Roller derby-ers
Military Color Guard
Antique Fire Engine
Rescued Dogs
WWII Duck
Gymnasts
Corvette collection
Bread mascot
Double-decker London tour bus
Soccer players
Chinese dragon
Baseball mascots
Soccer mascots
Girl scouts
Hula hoopers

This little ballerina reminded me of an impressionist painting I have a vague memory of.

Oh, and, how could I forget:

The cast of all 6 Star Wars episodes.

If rebels and empire-ists can ride together peacefully, can’t we all get along?

Now that I think about it, just the Star Wars characters decked out in Christmas decorations alone was probably enough to qualify for “eclectic” status.

Of course the best shot of a storm trooper I got was of the only one with no Christmas lights.

“Eclectic” has sometimes been used as a polite way of saying “messy,” “cluttered,” or even, “no taste.” But sometimes being eclectic works quite well.

In the case of the Starlight Parade, all divergent themes were tied together by the overarching theme of Christmas. As such, it kept the interest going for the full hour the parade lasted. You just never knew what was coming next.

This mascot stopped long enough for a family to get a picture.

And, yes, we saw the lawnmowers and VWs and cheerleaders in the Mainx24 parade, but that was during the day. See the difference? This time it was dark. And they were wearing lights. Completely different effect.

I was slightly disappointed with the Star Wars group, I must admit. I kept waiting for Yoda to pop up with a lightsaber and start flipping around while fighting Count Dooku. If Yoda was there, he was quietly meditating behind so many Christmas decorations I couldn’t see him.

No acrobatic lightsaber fights erupted during the parade.

The Star Wars characters were courtesy of two local chapters of a national organization of Star Wars costumers. One is called Rebel Legion. These folks are serious about dressing like the heroes of the Star Wars episodes. If you want to dress like a villain, however, you have to join the Fighting 501st Legion instead.

This is a hobby I’ve never considered. Tutorials on their website teach how to create authentic costumes. They include advise on Wookiee hair punching (which confused me until I saw a photo of a mask with hair being punched through it to create a hairy face), making your own blood stripes (which turn out to be red bars sewn on a sleeve), and creating a realistic lip curl (a mechanism to get a Wookie mask to snarl when roaring).

I don’t see myself turning into a costumer in the near (or distant) future, but the diversity of interests in this world is pretty amazing. What really amazes me is these folks spend a lot of time and money creating these costumes all for the purpose of appearing at charitable and community events in exchange for smiles.

Much like the car decorating hobby, I don’t quite get it, but I appreciate the effort at creating joy.

The lighted sign appeared like a thought bubble above this curious baby’s head.

Haunted

Posted by dkrashb on November 2, 2012

What would a haunt be without some haunting? This was another idea I had while shooting the Acres of Darkness event. I know I’m not going to have people begging to buy prints, but the entertainment value of creating “ghosts” in images is priceless.

For the second time in one night, photography served not as an art form but as a game. I’m beginning to think I’ve found my niche–I may not be an artist, but I’m pretty entertaining. 😀

I managed to recruit the subjects to play “ghost.” This required no acting. It simply required standing still and moving on command. By having the subject pause periodically and then move a few steps slowly and then pause again, we created a see-through ring of a ghost image of the subject.

People are amazed by this effect. In fact, I am amazed by this effect. No matter how many times I do this, I am still amused.

I learned a few things from this little experiment (OK, so maybe this should be obvious):

People wearing light colors show up a lot better in a really dark image than people wearing dark colors.
This effect only works well if there is enough ambient light to create a clear outline of the subject.
To create a single image of a ghost-person, have them stand still in the frame for about 1/3 of the total shutter time and then walk out of the frame really fast.
To create a trail of ghost images, they need to take two steps forward slowly, pause for about a 3-count (with a 30-second shutter speed), and repeat until the shutter closes.

The last image was an accident. But, it seemed fitting with the theme, so I kept it. It might just be a technique I want to try again someday. 🙂 I took a shot of the 3 kids using my flash, but I’d forgotten to change the settings on my camera from when I was shooting the previous images with a 30 second shutter speed.

So, my flash went off, creating a solid and clear image of the kids, but then my shutter was still open and I was waving my camera all over the place while I was talking to the kids, explaining that I needed to retake the shot but I had to wait for 30 seconds (this seems to be a difficult concept). While I was waving my camera around, it picked up on the different things I pointed it at just enough to create the “fog” over the image. I am not sure what the bright light at the top is, quite honestly. Might not be able to recreate that part. The next time I want to add fog to a scene, I might just give this a try!

Today’s life lesson from photography: sometimes doing something just for the fun of doing it is more satisfying than worrying about the end results.

Night Moves

Posted by dkrashb on October 31, 2012

I don’t know much about event shooting (besides the fact that it makes me nervous), but I figured having some photos of the crowd would be a good thing. Since the crowd at the Acres of Darkness event was standing in line for the haunted trail, I figured that’s where I needed to be.

This presented a special challenge: Large groups of people clumped along a line that spanned about 50 yards. Add to that, ridiculously little light. Even with my ISO setting all the way up to 25600, with an aperture of f/22, I needed a 1.3 second shutter speed to get the shot of the line.

Funny, I don’t remember ISO 25600 being in the table of reciprocal settings to get the same exposure with different ISO, shutter speed, and aperture combinations. I still shake my head, remembering how excited my dad was when he discovered 800 ISO film.

In any case, getting 50ish people strung out in a line to all hold still for 1.3 seconds was not an option. I experimented with even longer shutter speeds to see how much blur I got and whether I liked the effect or not. I like the mood the slight blurring creates for the halloween theme quite a bit, actually. The motion makes it seem more interesting somehow.

I might have gotten a bit carried away when I decided to try to create ghost images as people entered the trail. I asked several groups to “slow walk” as they started down the trail in the hope of creating some really great apparitions. This didn’t work out so well. The people created more of a haze in my image instead of actual ghosts. Next time, I will have them stand still for approximately 1/2 the time my shutter is open and see if that creates more of the effect I’m looking for.

On a more positive note, I added an entertainment factor no one expected. The people I asked to slow walk turned the assignment into the hokey pokey, robot moves, imitations of the 6 million dollar man (although I’m not sure any of them were old enough to have heard of him), and even a brief line dance. I, on the other hand, did not do any dancing.

I find it an interesting psychological experiment: ask people to perform and unusual but simple task and their self-consciousness causes them to turn it into something more usual, like dancing. Or, maybe it’s more of an act of embracing a moment of silliness and just rolling with it? Whichever the case, we all laughed a lot.

Fright Night

Posted by dkrashb on October 20, 2012

Halloween is perhaps the most magical holiday there is. After all, you get to transform yourself into a princess, a witch, a football player, a horse, or whatever your imagination can come up with. People hand you goodies. It’s suddenly socially acceptable to scare the pants off of everyone. And best of all, you don’t have to struggle to figure out what to get in the way of gifts–candy comes in fantastic variety packs that pretty much provide something for everyone.

And, it’s at the best the time of year in the US–the leaves vibrant in the golden light of the sun and the air dry, crisp, and cool–refreshing as a dip in the ocean after a day on a hot beach. And the harvest moon lighting the night sky with a brilliance not often seen in the summer time.

When you combine all that with bonfires, haunted mazes, s’mores, and scary story telling, there’s just no beating Halloween.

My husband and I have been debating on a costume for Tisen. We’ve never costumed a dog before, but there’s an upcoming dog party. I want to dress him as a cow. Pat wants to dress him as a poodle. Pat’s idea has two advantages: first, there are no logistical issues involving an udder and boy-dog naughty bits; second, it’s funnier. However, neither of us knows how to transform a pit bull into a poodle.

In the meantime, I’ve gotten into the spirit by volunteering at the annual “Acres of Darkness” event at the Audubon Society.

My job is to greet visitors at the entrance to the haunted woods and attempt to scare them with the history of how the woods became haunted, and then send them on their merry way into the pitch-black of the woods at the right time.

It’s a fun job.

Since the first weekend the event ran was a little slow, I took my camera and tripod out with me to see if I could get some pictures of the trail. It was really dark, but with the ISO set on 25,600 (every time I type that it still blows my mind–I remember when people used to talk about 800 ISO film being really fast), I managed to capture a few images. In fact, some of them were over exposed.

Capturing the glow-in-the-dark faces on the trees was easy enough–I could shoot them from my position at the entry to the haunted woods. The rest of the images required walking through the haunted woods. Since I couldn’t leave my post until after we closed for the night, I was wandering down an already dark trail turning off lights and stopping to shoot every once in a while. Fortunately for me, the zombies and monsters has worn themselves out on all the earlier visitors, so I made it through the trail unmolested. Unfortunately, that made for less exciting photos than I was hoping for.

Night Lights

Posted by dkrashb on October 2, 2012

I haven’t shot the Chattanooga skyline at night for a long time. And I probably shouldn’t have now, either. The sky wasn’t doing anything particularly interesting. What attracted me though, was the changing lights on the aquarium.

The aquarium hadn’t been lit at all for many months. Then, suddenly, the lights turned on and they were red. As were the lights on the Blue Cross Blue Shield building. And the lights running along the pier, the lights on the Riverwalk on this side of the river, and even the lights running along the Walnut Street bridge were covered in red film.

I asked someone if they knew why the lights had suddenly appeared in red. They guessed it was for the upcoming “Wine over Water” event, but that really didn’t make sense.

I googled Chattanooga and red lights. I got hits on all the traffic cameras at intersections in Chattanooga.

Then, on the night when I finally broke out the camera, the Blue Cross Blue Shield building was lit in pink and the aquarium lights started changing colors. The aquarium lights rotated from pink to red to orange to yellow to pale blue to dark blue to purple to pink, and finally, back to red.

I guess I should have just made a video of it because I ended up taking way too many pictures trying to get one of each color.

Then, like a kid suffering from ADD, I was more taken by the streaking head and tail lights of the traffic going through the scene than by the lights on the aquarium. What is it about long exposures with steaks of car lights going through them that’s so much fun?

But, back to the mystery of the colored lights. After shooting these, several things happened that made me suspect the red and pink lights were for breast cancer awareness. It started when I saw a “Save the Tatas” bumper sticker on a car in the grocery store parking lot.

Then, when I crossed the Walnut Street bridge, I realized there was a lighted ribbon symbol that could have been for heart disease awareness, but that’s in February. Then, the building lights were appearing in pink more often than in red. And, I learned that the 30th was the Chattanooga Race for the Cure.

So, I have concluded that the colored lights are supposed to be for breast cancer awareness and that they just started a little early (October is breast cancer awareness month) in honor of the race. That’s my theory anyway.

I still haven’t figured out why most of the lights are red instead of pink. Perhaps my theory will be proven or disproven as the month of October progresses.

In the meantime, I’m having fun with lights of all colors.

Bat Cave

Posted by dkrashb on June 29, 2012

In my early 20’s, a co-worker invited me on a group caving trip. In preparation, I put on approximately 7 layers of cotton. Cotton underwear, cotton long underwear, cotton jeans, cotton shirt, cotton sweatshirt, cotton everything.

We, of course, decided to do a crawl (more like a drag–there wasn’t enough space to actually get up on your hands and knees) through a 160 foot long “tunnel.” I was immediately behind the leader, who was wearing waterproof coveralls.

My co-worker was the last person in the group. When we caught up in a large cavern, I was soaked through. I said, “I thought you said it was a dry cave?” He replied, “What are you talking about? It was completely dry.”

This was probably true, but only because my 7 layers of cotton had absorbed every drop out of every puddle I drug my body through. I have since read that you will actually stay warmer stark naked than you will wearing wet cotton. I believe it.

I shivered for about 3 hours straight. The group debated on whether to take me to the hospital, figuring I was on the verge of hypothermia. I was OK as long as I kept shivering. I’ve never been so cold in my life.

Since then, I haven’t been so excited about caves. But when I learned that Outdoor Chattanooga offered a kayaking tour to a bat cave, I couldn’t resist.

We kayaked across a small section of Nickajack lake to the entrance of the bat cave. This is not a lair for a superhero, but rather a cave occupied by approximately 80,000 gray bats.

We sat in our kayaks near the fence that keeps people from getting too close to these endangered mammals. While we waited, we learned that the gray bat is not just important for mosquito control (one of the reasons I adore bats), but that it’s also a major pollinator. The fact that it’s endangered has vast implications for our ecosystem.

As the sun dropped, a whir started deep within the cave. After a while, there were so many bats flying out of the cave, it was like a blur of black motion rising from the opening and heading into the woods.

When we looked against the still-light sky, we could see hundreds of them darting around above our heads, collecting the insects around us.

It took at least 20 minutes, maybe 30, for all the bats to exit the cave. We sat in awe, watching until our necks ached. Then, we paddled back in the dark, each with a single light on our kayak.

As we arrived back at the launch, the crescent moon sank towards the horizon, setting very early (or late). It loomed larger as it approached the horizon, beginning to take on a golden cast.

We sighed and said out loud what a nice way it was to spend a Saturday evening. I wasn’t wearing a single stitch of cotton.

nomadicmainstream

Combining living on the road with a mainstream lifestyle

Tag Archives: Night Photography