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Soft Summer

I am just returned from vacation. A family trip, to visit family. Time by the lake. Play in the water. Tubing, swimming, paddle boarding. The sound of children laughing, cousins playing, music on the stereo, motorboats, ice cream, bonfires, glow sticks, and s’mores. The things summers at the lake are made of.

But the morning rose slowly, softly. The visual accompaniment to the childhood snores emanating from the children’s’ room. A mist blanketed the lake and seeped through the trees.

Quiet held off the advance of day as long as she could.

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Posted by Brian Miller in Monochrome, Picture Package

Hopes and Dreams

Baseball, it would seem, has begun again. The twitters is all aflutter; boasts and threats and promises are being made on Facebook. Some are claiming that all is right again in the world; baseball for them is akin to civil rights, justice, even oxygen.

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This is an image from my project-in-process: On The Bench, for which I received Rear Curtain’s Fellowship Award to support its completion. A bit of a preview, if you will. A teaser. Happy baseball everyone!

Posted by Brian Miller in Monochrome

Sketches: The Future’s So Bright

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A young child shields his eyes from the bright sun while riding his tricycle in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2012.

Posted by Brian Miller in Monochrome, Sketches

Sketches: Native Cowboy

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A young Indian cowboy sits alone and brooding high in the stands at the International Indian Finals Rodeo in Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 2012.

The contestants wait all evening for the shot at glory. Whether it be a barrel race lasting nearly a minute, a team calf roping event lasting half a minute, or the eternity that 8 seconds can seem on the back of a raging bull, they have one chance in the evening to pull off a great ride or to suffer abject defeat and possible injury.

I don’t know what led this young cowpoke to brood so: a poor ride; a father’s scolding; the mocking of friends. But it was clear he needed to be with his own thoughts for a while.

The International Indian Finals Rodeo drew competitors from Calgary, from Hopi, from Mescalero Apache, from Navajo and from many in between, with each competitor carrying the pride of their tribe on their shoulders. In addition, they carried the pride of Native, First Nation’s People.

There were not many spectators. A few curious attendees, but mostly the sense was that the stands were populated with the competitors’ family members. But I tell you, the competitors were as good as they come.

Posted by Brian Miller in Culture, Nuevo Mexico, Sketches, Tierra Encantada

Sketches: Say Cheese

 

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Posted by Brian Miller in Nuevo Mexico, Sketches, Tierra Encantada

Do What You Can

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The problem with being a creative is not always the lack of ideas; the problem with being a creative is sometimes too many ideas. Ted Orland, in Art and Fear, a book he co-wrote with David Bayles, mentions that often times the problem is better identified as a lack of creative discipline regarding the ideas. We get overrun by them and they can get it the way of actually creating and completing projects.

The other day I complained to my wife that I hadn’t had enough time to go out and photograph what I wanted. Her reply was not what I expected. Nor was it what I wanted to hear, “yeah, but you’re getting better at shooting what you CAN shoot…!!”

Ouch, but true!

What she meant was I was getting better at photographing our kids and our family life. She’s right. If I keep at something, keep studying, keep applying myself, learn new techniques and ways of seeing or interpreting, the images get better – mostly because I get better as a photographer and editor. And that means something.

All of us are limited by our life situation. We like to think we are free, and we like to yearn for more freedom. But we are as free as we are and lots can be done with that. The challenge often is not necessarily to strive for greater freedom, for greater access, for more time, for more gear, for more, for more…; rather the challenge is to focus on what is possible. To dream what is possible where others might not see it.

There is a story I heard years ago about a woman in India who was revered as a meditation teacher. Early in her life she had married and her husband forbade her to practice formal meditation. She acquiesced. But still she somehow practiced. When asked much later in her life about how she managed to develop such strong meditative practices and such great inner peace without formal practice she answered, as many meditation teachers will, with a question: “what is meditation?”

Her students dutifully responded, “the practice of paying attention in this moment and this moment only.”

She then continued, “and so, when I  stirred the rice, I stirred the rice; When I swept the floor I swept the floor; and when I ate, I ate.”

She did what she could with what she had, and she perfected her practice.

What can you do in this moment, in this situation, to practice photography despite your situation? What can you do without changing anything externally, but rather turning your attention to what you CAN do. Can you focus there? (Pun not intended.)

I can’t always photograph what I want to photograph, but I sure can photograph what is available to me. And can you guess which option will actually result in an image – perhaps even a good one?

Posted by Brian Miller in Creativity, Photographic Mindset

Bosque del Apache, Part 2

In my previous post I showed a quick series about the Geese and Sand Hill cranes at Bosque del Apache, a National Wildlife Refuge about an hour south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s a photographer magnet.

We had found a field full of birds, out of which came the images in the previous post, but soon they decided to move on to their nighttime location.

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We decided jump ahead of the birds to go to an area known as “The Flight Deck.”

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The “Flight Deck” is an observation station placed in the flooded fields at a favorite resting spot for the birds. Word has it that thousand of birds usually spend the night here…as well as several zealous photographers. This time the birds landed at a neighboring field without a deck. They tend to do that if there are predators nearby. So all that was left was a gaggle of photographers with impossibly large lenses, the water, and the sunset.

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Posted by Brian Miller in Animals, Nuevo Mexico, Tierra Encantada

Close to Home And The Birth Of A Project

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Recently I posted a review of my goals from 2011 and found that I had ticked off most of them. Great. I got to feel a momentary sense of pride of accomplishment. But something was lacking a bit. At first I couldn’t recognize what it was but eventually, as I thought about it more, I came to realize that my checklist of accomplished goals for the last year failed to tell the fuller story of my photographic year. You see, I accomplished more than just my checklist. I learned a lot by surprise along the way.

Yes, I was focused on my goals, but not so much that I failed to pay attention to other opportunities which presented themselves along the way. Not only did my skills as a photographer grow, but my focus, intention, and attention all grew as well.

You see, for a long time my focus in photography was what is “out there”, outside of me and outside of my community. I wanted to photograph what was exotic, foreign, new, distant. My focus was on distant lands, distant ideas. But then I read Close to Home by Stuart Sipahigil (listed here on the Craft & Vision website.)

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Close to Home has become a highly regarded and highly quoted book in the past year. In it Stuart turns his attention to a challenge many-if not most-amateur photographers have: making compelling images out of their “ordinary lives”-close to home. People loved it! From what I understand it is one of the bestselling titles from Craft and Vision this past year, and rightly so.

But Stuart’s book influenced me in a slightly different way. I wasn’t just looking for a way to make compelling images close to home, I was looking for a direction for my photography as a whole. I was searching for meaning in my photography. I was becoming less content making singular images of pretty stuff. I was wanting my photography to mean something more-if not to others, then to myself. And as I sat and thought about what I wanted to do with my photography I realized I was limited by my current life situation.

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My young family and job prevent me from traveling to distant lands (Mexico, Vietnam, Thailand, Peru) to photograph exotic people in exotic locales. I am pretty firmly planted in New Mexico-a land I’ve inhabited for 16 years and feel pretty familiar with. But then, as I thought more about what Stuart was encouraging in his book I started to ask myself what I could photograph-what I would be excited to photograph-near home? And suddenly I realized, “holy cow, I live in NEW MEXICO!!!” This land is filled with the exotic, the new, the interesting, the fascinating, the joyful, the sorrowful, the pain, the hardship, the beauty, the sky, the sun, the mountains, the dust, the tumbleweeds, the cacti, the outdoors, the drugs, the mix of cultures…..well, you get it, right? This land is fascinating and enchanting and filled with wondrous stories of people and cultures and art and music and life!

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And out of this was born the idea of my Tierra Encantada Project as well as my direction, purpose, meaning, and excitement-to try to tell the story of New Mexico as I know it. To try to show you, the viewer and reader, what this land is like and about. To try to point you toward why this is an enchanting place.

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So, if you haven’t read Stuart’s book, Close to Home, do so! If you have read it, make a point to read it again. It is not a long book, but its depth is palpable. And I have heard from a small bird that he is working on another book due out possibly this Spring; I can’t wait!

Note: Those of you involved in the photography scene may be aware that my new friend and Blurb photographer at large Daniel Milnor (aka Smogranch) is also working on a very similar project. His work is absolutely fantastic and if you haven’t seen it go follow his tumblr blog where he is being completely transparent about the project’s process and progress for the sake of his subjects-people who would not otherwise see the results of their portraits. Also check out this video of him at work here in NM. He and I met recently and shared ideas on our projects.  It is great fun to watch how he approaches the same subjects and what he comes away with. At first I was concerned I would be repeating what he’s already doing, but he comes from outside the state and sees things in a much different way than I do. That combined with his mega years of experience, his photography education, his outgoing nature, and the fact that he tends to shoot with a Leica means his work is going to look wayyyyyy different from mine. Can you tell I’m a fan? Still, I hesitated when he began to make his project public until I realized I could not deny the push inside that drives me to work on this project.

All of these images were made after meeting with Daniel in Santa Fe with my manual film camera, a Pentax K1000. All except the second-that was shot in my driveway. Talk about close to home!

Posted by Brian Miller in Good Reads, Monochrome, Nuevo Mexico, Tierra Encantada

Setting the Course; Hoping for Favorable Winds

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Today is the day I set out some photographic goals for myself. I do so with some excitement as well as some anxiety. After all, I realize I am not fully in charge of this life and many things can happen to get me off course. I don’t want to end up 2012 looking back at this list feeling I have failed. I know that although my hopes for the year exist, the year will also look very different from what I imagine.

So why do this?

Well, quite simply put, I am distractible. Easily distractible. And I need reminding, much reminding, to focus on what I would like to achieve, who I want to be, and how I want my life to be. So this list, these goals/hopes/aspirations, are put forth with the idea that I will review them periodically and they will help me to refocus. There are also items here I long to get involved in which take some planning and foresight, so this voicing of my intention helps to pave the long road toward those items.

Where was I?

Oh, that’s right! Goals!

So here we go: I’ve arranged these in the manner suggested by Steve Simon in his wonderful book, The Passionate Photographer. If you haven’t read it, do. Making this list in this manner, with these categories, has helped them be more focused and I hope will lead to more accomplishment, and therefore more joy.

Photographic Project Goals:

    • Continue working on my Tierra Encatada Project (New Mexico Project)
    • Develop and Complete an ebook on the psychology of photography.
    • Create a notebook dealing with cameras.
    • Create a notebook dealing with life in Cafes.
    • Finish my baseball project (Put me in Coach)
    • Create a photobook based on the Dia de los Muertos Parade here in Albuquerque, NM.
    • Create a photobook chronicling my young family’s life with photo stories
    • Create 2 photo stories with NM artist’s as the subject. I have 2 ideas for subjects here.
    • Begin my Two Worlds Project dealing with bicultural couples.

Artistic Goals:

    • Partake in at least one photographic workshop
    • Either enter (deadline 1/20/12) or attend Review Santa Fe Critique/Review. My intent here is to learn more about what makes a good photograph, especially with regard to my own work, much of which I am often too emotionally close to in order to assess that effectively. 
    • Take an active part in an online collaboration/feedback forum to which I belong. Once again my effort here is to help me develop a more critical eye regarding my photography and photography in general. I also enjoy helping others work toward their photographic goals and this is a way to do so.
    • Attend quarterly photography gallery viewings at galleries such as Verve and Photo-Eye
    • Read and digest at least 5 of the following books:
    • Develop a greater ability to tell visual stories by studying the craft through books, blogs, and producing at least 4 concentrated visual stories.

Technical Improvement Goals:

    • Learn how to use a handheld light meter in order to learn to better meter my film camera.
    • Increase my ability to use off camera flash and flash modifiers.
    • Learn black and white film processing-Darkroom anyone?
    • Update the firmware on my camera.
    • Learn ftp protocol for my website

Equipment Goals:

    • Silver Efex Pro 2 Computer Software
    • Portable Softbox
    • Umbrella & Stand
    • Rangefinder camera- you know, a Leica M9 or a Fujifilm x100
    • An iPad, cuz I really, really want one.
    • Wacom Tablet.

(Note: having written this before the new year and posting it here a week or so later, I have noticed that my “Equipment” list is short and-frankly-I don’t really “need” anything on it. The first three items would be nice and would help some with my vision of some images I want, but I can manage without them. The last three goals are just wants. I have what I need in terms of stuff. What I really need is more time to work on my projects, not more equipment.)

What about you? Do you have goals, dreams, aspirations? Are there things you would like to feel you have accomplished, created, enjoyed in the coming year? What point on the compass does you heart set?

Posted by Brian Miller in Creativity, Monochrome

El Kookooee Se Quema (El Kookooee Burns)

Each year, on the last Sunday in October, the Mexican Bogeyman of El Kookooee is burned in effigy in the South Valley of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I’d never been to this event, or it’s bigger cousin, the Burning of Zozobra 50 miles north in Santa Fe, and so I thought I might go. I arrived early to get a feel for the environment and try to get a sense of what was going to happen. I’ve felt driven and called, both, to document and tell stories of this enchanted land where I live and although Daniel Milnor has also embarked on his journey to tell the story of New Mexico, I can’t help but tell my own vision of this place.

Each year the effigy is designed by a middle school student and then the design is reproduced giant size into El Kookooee, the Bogeyman. The burning of El Kookooee culminates the Festival de Otoño in this Latino neighborhood and is intended to help maintain the cultural heritage of Hispanics in the area. The effigy is stuffed with your fears and worries, written on slips of paper, to symbolize ending and rebirth.

As the day marched toward its inevitable conclusion and the crowds began to gather on the South Valley Baseball Fields the giant statue of El Kookooee was consecrated by Aztec Dancers, a belly dancer or two, and eventually by fire dancers.

The crowd took on a festival feeling as families arrived, set up picnic chairs and coolers, and children ran around and played. Folks arrived by car, by scooter, by foot, on horseback, and four wheeler.

Eventually night set in and the anticipation of the crowd was raised along with the volume on the PA system. To the beats of “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash, “Burning Down the House” by the Talking Heads, and the cries of “burn it! burn it! burn it” from the crowd, the Fire Dancers took over the attention of the onlookers.

Eventually the Fire Dancers earned their due and El Kookooee took the first steps in achieving his purpose as flames quickly licked their way up his right leg and engulfed him to the approving roar of the crowd.

Not long after, the people grew silent as people often will when faced with a cold dark night and a strong contained fire.

Whether lost in reflecting or filming the thing going up, not many could take their eyes from the burning bogeyman.

And eventually he lifted everyone’s fears and worries into another winter’s night.

Posted by Brian Miller in Festivals, Nuevo Mexico, Tierra Encantada