Lights 15/52 - Ferris Wheel
By JohnU | May 4, 2012
One night. Two shots. Very little processing; nothing but adjusting the contrast and clarity. Did not touch the color; it’s just there.
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Lights 14/52 - Self Portrait
By JohnU | April 12, 2012
Still playing with the new speedlight.
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Lights 13/52 - Self Test
By JohnU | April 11, 2012
The Nikon SB-910 speed light arrived today.
So I tested it.
More precisely, I played with it. I played with settings and adjustments, I aimed the light here, there, and up there. I lowered and raised the amount of light it flashed.
This picture is cropped, but otherwise straight out of the camera. No adjustments whatsoever.
My initial reaction: Happy.
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Lights 12/52 - Sundrenched
By JohnU | April 7, 2012
Had one setting wrong when I went out shooting this morning. This is part of the results. See more on FlickR when I get them posted.
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12-in-12
By JohnU | March 31, 2012
Progress Report - First Quarter
January, I completed the first novella in about two weeks; it came in a series of high-energy spurts, three and four thousand words at a time. It’s currently called The North Country of Winter, though I fully and completely intend to change that title–unless it sticks. Thus far, it hasn’t. In essence, it’s a Twilight Zone type of tale in which our main character crossed, via a motel off Route 9 in upstate New York, into some other, not quite earth realm. (Note: this is a recurring theme of mine.) When I finished, I wasn’t entirely sure it was a real story; it was subtle, perhaps overly so, and the nature of the conflict was different than is usual. North Country of Winter ended with a word count of 20,569. (There is no actual word count goal, per se, but I am aiming for between 20,000 and 25,000 words for the novellas.)
February, I started a story that eventually earned the title The Dry Dusted Sands, another crossing-worlds tale; this one starts with a map, and train tickets, and goes on at a rather quiet, even keel until, at the end, everything gets out of hand and it all goes over the top. It ends like an anime film, and clocks in at 20,289 words. I didn’t actually finish the first draft until three weeks into March.
Also in February, I started the third novella, The Making of a Shadow, which takes place entirely in our world and involves alchemy, perhaps some magic, and an old book written by the main character’s father. (The book, by the way, is The Making of a Shadow; this is no great secret, as it’s revealed quite early.) I completed the first draft on March 31, which means I’m exactly on target to complete 12-in-12 (none yet have been novels; at least two, possibly three, will be). I started this a day or two after the other because I was not at home, didn’t have my laptop, and didn’t want to waste a chunk of time I knew I could devote to something. The first draft is finished at 24,136 words.
I bounced back and forth between the two without marathon days, at most doing 1,000 - 1,500 words per story on any given day and some days accomplishing much less.
What’s next? I don’t know. I’m taking the rest of this month off. (At the time of this posting, that’s seven whole hours.)
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12-in-12
By JohnU | March 27, 2012
IIII. My Vantage Point
I’ve never worked on two major projects simultaneously before. I have friends who have done this; but they have the luxury (and weight) of relying only upon their writing for a living, and therefore have time in places where I have a Day Job.
It was, for me, an experiment. The two stories were very different. I bounced back and forth between them quite regularly, so that they were always within a few thousand words of each other. I wrote bits of one, then bits of the other, then back to the first—all the way until one came within spitting distance of its end game. Now it’s complete, at just over 20,000 words, while the other, at over 18,000 words, has a bit further to go.
What did I learn about me and my writing process during this experiment?
The two stories are, on the surface, entirely different; but thematically and tonally, they are in fact more similar than not. There’s one major structural difference. But they both utilize the same point of view (third person limited), they both are written in the same tense (past), they both unravel slowly while building tension; they both lead to unexpected places. Could I have done two pieces that were more drastically different? Could one have been a first person, fast paced, chaotically structured romp? Could one have been over-the-top from the start (not just at the end), extravagant, sharply pointed, and hyper-surreal?
In short, yes.
In long, maybe not. You see, my vantage point, as a writer, changes with time; both these stories, written concurrently, reflect my current mindset, my current approach to fiction and word play, my current condition in life, and my current place within this unimaginably vast universe. Of course, these aren’t things that change on a daily basis. But I could no more have written these stories twenty years ago than I could write my first published novel, Sins of Blood and Stone, today—the same story, the same structure, and the same characters, I still would have ended up with something else.
Both these novellas are stories of self-discovery, even as I continue to discover myself. Both of these stories have unconventional conflicts at their core, a certain non-linearity to their overall linear plots, which shows exactly where I am today. But the foundation of me, the places from which I’ve always looked at things and written things and approached things, can still be found in the underlying themes and concepts and, frankly—or more precisely, starkly—in the climaxes and denouements of each.
I’m growing as a person, growing by uneven leaps of logic and faith and experience, and it shows in what I write. So yes, obviously, if I write two things today, both those things will reflect that, even when they are entirely unique.
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Lights 11/52 - K
By JohnU | March 27, 2012
After the big shoot with 20+ models and multiple locations and changes of clothes and makeup and such, I went back to the same boutique for a solo shot with the proprietor, shown here. We were indoors for this portion of the shoot, but I used the natural light coming through the big windows at the front of the shop. Diffused sunlight from a bright, sunny day. I think it worked. It’s probably my favorite from the whole shoot, and the only one in black and white.
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Lights 10/52 - Mannequins
By JohnU | March 21, 2012
Side by side. Found on location during another photo shoot. Stole a moment to take these, too, before we got too busy…
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Lights 9/52 - Keys
By JohnU | March 14, 2012
You can tell I haven’t had this laptop very long; all the keys are still readable.
This is the keyboard on which I bang out my stories, novellas, and novels (and also essays, e-mails, and poetry).
Lighting: self illuminated.
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Lights 8/52 - Broccoli
By JohnU | March 12, 2012
What’s for dinner?
Sauteed with butter, garlic, and lemon juice.
Light: on-camera flash. Lens: borrowed 90mm macro. I’ll be playing with that for a bit.
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